(on the eve of his death anniversary -1/2/21)

Muntazir a poet of Pashtoon Ego

By Altaf Ahmad Shah, Paniala
Muntazir Bhittani was one of the greatest Pashtoon poet and writer of Southern
districts of Khyber PashtoonKhawa, Pakistan. Today, on 1st February all Pashtoons of
the glob are celebrating his 13th death anniversary with great fervor and literary zeal.
His real name was Hamaish Gull, his father name was Saleh Khan, and he was born on
1st May 1935 in a small village named Gullan Kot of District Tank. He got his early
education in village Tatur and did MA (as a private candidate) and LLB as a regular
candidate from Gomal University DIKhan.
He was the first elected Senior Secretary General of Pashto Adabi Majlis (registered)
and at the end of the day its patron in chief, while patron in chief of eleven Adabi
Tolanay, who were serving the literary activities of district Tank, South Waziristan and
the then FR Tank also.
In his poetry, he wishes for eternal love, peace, tranquility and brotherhood for the
whole world, while wants a very high pedestal for Pashtoon and wants their sustainable
progress and prosperity.
Mr.Salim Noshad, President Tank Adabi Majlis, is of the view that, Muntazir has a
prominent position among those whom have authority on the subject of linguistic and
phonetics. He has four books on his credit, two has poetic flavor while two with
phonetics fragrance.
As his poetry is symbolic, he chooses a very symbolic name for his first poetic
collections, the pole star, “Da Qutab Storay”. Muntazir is of the view that so far as the
beauty of the vault of heaven is concerned, the Pole star has a key position and if some
stars destroy, there will be no change, but if you forget the Pole star then your caravan
will be shattered.
“Deva” is his favourite symbol that is why he preserves a separate space for his poem
on the theme. According to him, prison and oil burning lamp have the same fate and
both are burning in their own fire. Besides,”Deva” has the same character like a modest
Pashtoon virgin, whose innersole is full of sorrows but her outface, is smiling. It faces a
gigantic and mountain like darkness, a tradition of the society, but lights for others.
He, like Greek philosophers, is of the view that “idea is real”. He says, “I have seen
your beauty with my open eyes, now how will it disappear from my memories, because
once Ka’aba has been built, its existence will be perpetual”. Here we can also smell his
adherence to love and beauty with a very powerful example.

Munatazir is of the view, that leader should be truthful, state forward and will not
conceal any truth and will utter it sincerely. His eyes will not glitter in front of wealth.
He will have a live conscience. His heart will be like rabab (the musical instrument) that
is why he will permanently rectify its fault and will try to make it in proper tune and
rhythm.

According to the poet, there is no autumn but there is perpetual spring in

independence. Every individual is respectful and prestigious. All are equal and there is
no distance between the ruled and the ruler. Independence doesn’t believe in under
arm diplomacy, it believes in open diplomacy. Muntazir says, “the breeze and season of
democracy is in full swing almost everywhere, then how and why the petals of each of
my flower land are withering away”.
Peace is also a corner stone of his poetic philosophy; he considers it as a sacred and
noble cause, not only for individual but also for humanity. He likes true democracy and
doesn’t accept dictatorship in the garb of democracy. He is of the view that tyranny
can’t prevail long and at last the light of democracy come and benefits the masses.
As a patriot, his concept is crystal clear, he directly converse with country and says to
his motherland, “You are my wealth and riches and I am your custodian. I face each
and every tide of colonialism only for the sake of you, because I consider that you are
mine, you are from me and I am from you, we are interrelated”.
His ideal woman is a Pashtoon honourable virgin who has the superb qualities of
modesty, chastity and purity. And due to Pashtoon code of life, she neither unveils nor
makes herself public for exhibition.
Like Arabs, his language is as pure as milk and as a phonetics, he has the authority to
choose suitable local words like sarwanrey, shamkor, karey in an attractive way that it
conveys their true meaning to every Pashtoon irrespective of Qandhari or Yousafzia
dialect.

Muntazir Betani’s real valuable work was his first book on phonetics of the five
alphabets of Pashto published in 1974. The front page of the booklet has the title, Five
Alphabets with Thirteen Pronunciations, i.e. Zeem, Kheen, Zhae, Sheen and Ontr. He
elaborated them according to their pitches, sounds, pronunciations, denominators and
also along with their outlets and vocal cards in Pashtoon areas. Therefore, according to
Munatazir, their correct use and writing style can bring us not only nearer to the
uniformity of dictation, but also give us true meaning of the word. His other two
collections have the same pedestal in literary world.