کشور سلطان

From Wikipedia

کشور سلطان
کشور سلطان

Syed Booker Shah

When the silver screen was exploiting the talents throughout the sub-continent and explored Lata Mangeshkar, Noor Jehan, Shamshad Begum, Surraya, Asha Bhoslay etc, the rustic music of Pukhto found Gulnar Begum and Kishwar Sultan to fight, all alone, against all the odds, from the poor and backward background, the powerful influence of the dazzling glamour of the silver screen with all the resourceful background of the musical heritage of India. For over half a century, this fight continued unabated until the rise of a new generation of artists like Mashooq Sultan, Noor Jehan, Neelam, Qamar Gul, Zar Sanga and others to take up the delicate responsibility of preservation of the cultural heritage with a tinge of modernism. But what these artists get from their own people! The answer to this pathetic state of affairs is just shocking. Prominent singer Kishwar Sultan is the one who is leading her life in extremely difficult condition in a two and half marla house in one of the most congested areas of Peshawar city. In this small house, she is living with her ailing husband, sons and grandsons. In a situation that her 60-year old paralyzed husband, Tariq Mahmud, is confined to bed for the last several years and her 30-year old son, Wahid Tariq, is unable to work due to kidney failure, the government, general public, and the lovers of her songs, have totally ignored her. These were the feelings that were expressed by her in an interview with the Frontier Post in her house. "Suffering from certain diseases since 1988, I have knocked at the doors of every minister and every government official. I have approached the then chief minister Mir Afzal Khan and the sitting chief minister Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao also. They wrote something on my applications and asked me to go to the health secretary. He sent me to other officials and they directed me to others. I may say that from top to bottom, each one in the government kicks off the applicant to pass him on to others, like a football, instead of listening to him to understand and solve the problem." Kishwar Sultan narrated the story of her plight in a pathetic voice. "One official of the health department offered some financial assistance from the Zakat fund. He said that the department could not help me from its own resources. I refused that offer and said to him that I am not so poor to be deserving Zakat, nor I am a beggar. I have faith in Almighty God. He helps me. Whatever I have that is sufficient for our sustenance, and we are content with that." Kishwar Sultan has won the presidential award of the `pride of performance' but has been utterly disappointed with the indifferent attitude of the provincial government. She was skeptic about the minister for culture Dr Mahbub-ur-Rahman in particular, because it is his duty to look after the interests of the artists who serve and keep up the culture. She also mentioned with skepticism ministers Khwaja Muhammad Khan and Syed Qamar Abbas and some others. It is a matter of surprise that unlike his father Fariqh Bokhari and uncle Raza Hamdani, Syed Qamar Abbas has shrunk himself into a very small circle and does not want to see out of that. Majority of the people, she said, were doing the lip service by offering sweet words in her favour but none has so far done anything in practice for her. In fact, it is much harder to turn word into deed than deed into word. She said that she was considering to seek an interview with prime minister Benazir Bhutto to apprise her of her miseries. Kishwar Sultan is one of the senior artists and has rendered tremendous services to Pukhto language and culture for a long span of time. Her metallic voice has been echoing not only through the length and breadth of Pukhtunkhwa but in other parts, and even outside, Pakistan. She has visited several countries to display her art of singing. Apart from representing the Pukhto songs and culture at various fora inside and outside the country, she has sung several hundreds songs for the radio, television and films. She complained that the radio and television had stopped payment of royalty for her songs for the last several years. She could not record new songs during the last seven years due to her deteriorating health. Kishwar Sultan, now in her 60s, was ignorant of the formation of any welfare association of the artists. It may be recalled that the artists of the province have formed recently a body headed by Gulzar Alam to serve interests of the artists. Surprisingly, this prominent singer has not been informed. Hailing from Par Hoti Mardan, Kishwar Sultan has migrated to Peshawar in 1971. Some of the most popular singers including Mehr-un-Nisa, Chishti Chaman Jan and Sabr-un-Nisa were her aunts. She received musical education from famous musicians including Fareh Sher Shama, Suhbat Khan Baba of Marghuz and his son Rafiq Shinwari. Giving the details of her life, Kishwar Sultan said that she had sung the first Pukhto song - a tappa and a loba - inside her house and later visited radio Pakistan Peshawar when Qazi Saeed was the director and Rasheed Ali Dehqan a producer. "For the first time, I sang for the radio some tappa which were approved there and then by the authorities." She recalled that prominent singers Gulnar Begum and late Ahmad Khan had also visited the radio in those days. She liked some of her most popular songs including: Gul me pa mangul day janana and Gul day da redee .. maalae rawrha .. ze pa urbal ke baye gdma. She abhors those singers who present their bodies. They don't serve the Pukhto language and its culture. She dislikes the pop music and deplored that some of the young Pukhtuns were following that style which is not compatible with their tradition and culture. Kishwar Sultan referred to an incident that one day she was on way to home. She was passing by two old men who were standing on the road side and heard one of them saying; "God will take her to task on the day of judgement." She felt sorry for it that some people are thinking that she has committed a sin by singing. "Such expression disturbs me very much", she said.


(courtesy; daily Frontier Post, Peshawar; 5 November 1994)