LAHORE: A convention held here on Saturday brought artistes, singers, rights activists and union workers together at one platform to raise a voice for social change and look retrospectively at the common struggle for rights in the country.
The convention, “Reconnecting cultural freedoms and labour rights, was organised by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) with the participants coming from across the country.
In a session on “Art, labour and the struggle for change,” playwright Shahid Nadeem of Ajoka mentioning the factors that could unite different segments of society, saying that with the tradition of folk theatre, dating back thousands of years, had the potential to unite us.
“Sufism is another factor that removes segregation of classes as well as religious differences and its manifestation can be seen on shrines.” He termed peace also important that could bring the society together.
Nadeem stressed that without workers and progressive movement, bringing about change in society was hard, adding that “you need local collaborators to keep the struggle as well as change going on. He suggested keeping the tradition as well as modernity together to provide a platform to the workers, cultural activists and journalists to bring about social change together.
Artist Salima Hashmi spoke about the strategy for the future. “Sometimes I think the people in the current era are disillusioned but if you are connected with youth, as I am through my teaching profession, then you find hope,” she said and added that art was prone to subversion and it challenged the status quo.
Speaking further about youth, she said the youth possessed the energy required to bring about social change but they needed direction and role models, admitting that her generation tried to give the youth a direction but failed. However, she found a silver lining even in darkest clouds, narrating one incident in the National College of Arts during Gen Zia’s regime when she cleverly dealt with an activist of Islami Jamiat Talaba who tried to disrupt a drawing class where students were drawing a model. The IJT activist objected that her drawing class had not been “Islamised”.
Ms Hashmi stressed we needed all sectors and activists coming together and that artists, poets and writers needed to join the struggle of rights.
Tanveer Jahan, hosting the session, agreed that we needed to give leadership to the youth and that everybody across the board had to bring fragmented society together with a special role to be played by journalists, writers and activists.
Asghar Nadeem Syed read out a poem he had written on May Day in 1990 to be recited at the Pak Tea House.
Journalist Wajahat Masood, script writer Bee Gul and Dr Ali Raza were among other speakers.
VOICES OF SOLIDARITY: Presiding over another session, “the voices of solidarity,” activist and veteran journalist Hussain Naqi highlighted that both writers and workers were oppressed in a society overtaken by capitalism. He suggested that in the urban areas where there were industrial workers, poets and writers, groups should be formed and meetings should be held to invite the poets to motivate the workers.
“The poets and writers can inspire workers who are more suppressed than them and small meetings can be arranged.”
Singer and composer Haroon Bacha from the US spoke through a video message, focusing on the plight of Afghan and Pashtun musicians and singers who moved to Pakistan after the Taliban takeover. He said all these artistes were being deported from Pakistan now. He added that his organisation prepared a report that showed how musicians and singers were in bad condition in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Afghanistan. “I request all to include Pashtun and Afghan musicians in the workers category and they were also labourers, making ends meet for their family through their art.”
TV actor Saba Hameed spoke about her father Hameed Akhtar who was secretary general of Progressive Writers Movement, saying that the struggle had been going on for centuries.
“Writers and poets have been raising their voice for workers. However, artists, musicians and singers are also fragmented and there are no voices raised for them,” she said, urging them to unite.
Classical dancer Sheema Kirmani said working class women were most suppressed as they were doing labour inside and outside their homes. She suggested that if cultural activists and artists would unite, the struggle for rights would be more effective.
Describing her personal experiences, she said the common people felt more connected to the stories and storytelling and they were moved by the poetry like that of Habib Jalib. “Poetry and art force people to think and raise questions and it’s the duty of an artist to show alternative ways to the people and have dreams of a different world.”
Gohar Taj, the president of All Pakistan Workers Federation, pointed out an issue in Pakistan, saying that in all provinces, labour ministers were industrialists and they were following any labour laws in their own industries, including minimum wage. He lamented that the groups fighting for workers rights were not as active as they were before in cities like Lahore.
TV actor Ayesha Toor and film actor Mustafa Qureshi also spoke.
CHARTER OF DEMANDS: At the conclusion, HRCP Secretary General Harris Khalique read out his poetry and presented a charter, calling for implementation of minimum living wage, end of all kinds of discrimination, saying that the right to work with dignity and the right to create freely were inseparable.
The charter called for a living wage, safe workplaces, social protection for all workers, including informal labour, the right to form unions, equal rights and pay, protection against discrimination and violence, recognition of cultural work as labour, workers’ participation in labour policy and equitable access to cultural platforms for working-class communities.
Khaled Anum and Ali Aftab Saeed sang songs at the start and end of the convention.
Published in Dawn, September 20th, 2026
