The First Women VC of Pakistan died quietly , The Apathy by media & intellectuals
95 years old Dr Kaniz
Yousaf quietly died last week in the Capital. Although she had promoted many
students and many of them are at key posts silence on her death shows the apathy,
prevalent in Capital especially.
Fixed Allama Iqbal date of birth
She was also a part of the core team along with Faiz Ahmad Faiz (as quoted by Nusrat Javed) that had fixed date of birth of poet philosopher Allama Iqbal (9th November) in 1976.
Zia & mindset against Iqbal & Jinnah
But during General Zia’s dark times, the institute was ruined deliberately. As its head, Kaniz Yusuf had published a forgotten work of Syed Zaidi Alhuma, Quaid-e-Azam aur un kay Rufaqa, based on 13 rare interviews of personalities who had met the Quaid. But the establishment of Zia was against such material.
Lhore in 1940s, Lady Thakardas & liberal women
“Till mid-1940s, Punjabi Muslim families had started sending their girls to colleges and many of us did not wear burqa.”
She did her matriculation in 1941and had joined newly formed Islamia College Kopper road, Lahore where Principle was a talented Christian woman Thakar Das. Bano Qudssia was her college fellow who was a newly convert from Hinduism to Islam. Begum Altaf Guhar was among her teachers. Her ideals were out spoken & liberal Begum Jhan Ara Shah Nawaz & resilient Salma Tasadaq Husain.
Link of Article Published in News On Sunday at Dec 2, 2018, click below
An intellectual who stood her ground
Fixed Allama Iqbal date of birth
She was also a part of the core team along with Faiz Ahmad Faiz (as quoted by Nusrat Javed) that had fixed date of birth of poet philosopher Allama Iqbal (9th November) in 1976.
Zia & mindset against Iqbal & Jinnah
But during General Zia’s dark times, the institute was ruined deliberately. As its head, Kaniz Yusuf had published a forgotten work of Syed Zaidi Alhuma, Quaid-e-Azam aur un kay Rufaqa, based on 13 rare interviews of personalities who had met the Quaid. But the establishment of Zia was against such material.
Lhore in 1940s, Lady Thakardas & liberal women
“Till mid-1940s, Punjabi Muslim families had started sending their girls to colleges and many of us did not wear burqa.”
She did her matriculation in 1941and had joined newly formed Islamia College Kopper road, Lahore where Principle was a talented Christian woman Thakar Das. Bano Qudssia was her college fellow who was a newly convert from Hinduism to Islam. Begum Altaf Guhar was among her teachers. Her ideals were out spoken & liberal Begum Jhan Ara Shah Nawaz & resilient Salma Tasadaq Husain.
Link of Article Published in News On Sunday at Dec 2, 2018, click below
An intellectual who stood her ground
Unheard and forgotten story of Partition & Single largest Punjabi Districts
Dr Yusuf was born in 1923 in Lahore near Qila Luchhman Singh (Kasurpura) behind Minar-e-Pakistan. Her grandfather Sufi Peer Bakhsh was a linguist and her father was a headmaster in Patti near Kasur (now in Firozpur, India). Till 1947 both Kasur and Patti were included in district Lahore. Firozpur was included among those half a dozen Punjabi districts where Muslims were in majority (above 44 per cent) and till August 14, 1947 they were adamant on being included in Pakistan but twisted Boundary Commission not only included them in India but also cut Patti from district Lahore.
Kaniz’s father could not think of such barbaric act and lost his memory. I interviewed Kaniz in 2006 for a left journal and she said “my father lived for 10 years with us after 1947 but he had no current memory. He remembered the holy Quran and events before 1947. He could not even recognise his son.” The story of those single largest Punjabi districts is almost missing in our stories about partition.
She liked the American lifestyle that was quite opposite to the colonial pride
About Bhutto and its times
Equally critical of secular, progressive and religious groups, Kaniz admired Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and his independent thinking. “America was against Bhutto from day one when Bhutto was foreign minister of Ayub.” When Bhutto had resigned from Ayub’s cabinet, she was among many young intellectuals who joined him. At that time, she was principal of Women’s College at Pindi.
It was Bhutto who had appointed a woman as Vice Chancellor of a University in Pakistan for the first time — that was Kaniz Yusuf from 1972 to 1976. She tried her best to lay foundation of a modern higher education institute in the newly-formed Quaid-e-Azam University. National Institute of Pakistan Studies (NIPS) is one fine example to understand true spirit of Pakistan Movement but thanks to twisted Islamisation of Zia, Pakistan drifted towards religious extremism. “Religious lobby has changed Iqbal and Jinnah as per their extremist interpretations.”
This institute (NIPS) is a
true example of shattered dreams.
Struggle & Suspicion
“I took retirement
from education department in April 1979, (the month Gen. Zia hanged Bhutto with
help of courts) and went to London and in my absence a case was launched by
dictator against me regarding Al Zulfiqar”. Like Pindi
Conspiracy case, it was a usual trick to fix enemies in false conspiracy cases
and spread rumors of compromises about accused people.
Interview of Kaniz Yousaf for Awami Jumhori Forum 2006
Link of the interview
Thanks to her over
ambitious but talented younger brother, she suffered a lot.
You may disagree with
her but due to her struggle future historians & scholars will remember her
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