He lost the election that mattered most, yet a generation in Bahawalnagar still measures public life by the way he conducted his.
Bahawalnagar remembers Malik Muhammad Qasim as one of the most dignified figures in its political history as a lawyer, a public representative and an orator whose speeches could hold a crowd in complete silence. Years after his death, those who knew him recall not the offices he held but the manner in which he practised politics — through personal ties, restraint and an unbroken respect for his opponents.
Mr Qasim was a well-known political and social figure of the district and belonged to the generation of young men who played their part during the Pakistan Movement and took an active role in the struggle for the country’s creation.
He came from Malikpura, a settlement in the border belt adjoining Bahawalnagar. Several of the elders of the journalist’s family belonged to the neighbouring village of Mahmooda Jodhika. The farmland of the two villages met along a shared boundary, and that closeness produced far more than a property line; the two families were bound by kinship, social obligation and a long friendship.
That bond carried into politics. When elections came around, Mr. Qasim travel to sit with the elders of the area — and the politics of that era asked for exactly this. Personal acquaintance, sincerity, good manners and the claims of baradari and locality counted for as much as any manifesto. He was received with full honour, and the elders in turn extended their open support. The relationship was never confined to polling season; behind it lay years of mutual affection and trust.
Time moved on and circumstances changed. Mr. Qasim took up the law and built a reputation as a distinguished advocate, a career that drew him from Bahawalnagar to Lahore and, later, to the federal capital. Distance never loosened the older ties. Wherever he lived, his attachment to his district and its people stayed intact.
One quality set him apart from his contemporaries more than any other; his command of the spoken word. Learning and oratory were his signature. Those who heard him speak describe a voice with a particular resonance, a delivery carrying both confidence and warmth, and a choice of words that held an audience in place.
He did not merely recite a speech. He felt what he said before he said it. The rise and fall of his voice, the seriousness of his tone and the sweetness of his sentiment combined to produce a hush over the gathering. Older residents recall occasions when listeners were so overcome that tears came to their eyes — the truest mark of an orator, that his words reach past the ear and into the heart.
He was not the sort of man who turned political disagreement into personal enmity.
In temperament he was refined, composed and courteous, and he came from a respected family. Vindictiveness had no place in his political method. His conduct reflected an older code in which a rival, too, was owed his dignity.
His electoral record was mixed. On one occasion he contested against Mian Abdul Sattar Lalika Joiya and was unsuccessful. The result, however, neither erased his standing nor closed his political career. Victory and defeat come and go in public life; what endures is how a person holds on to his character, his principles and his relationships through both.
Mr. Qasim was associated with the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and with Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s political mission, and in that period and others he held significant responsibilities and public office. He worked for the development of his area and for the resolution of ordinary people’s grievances, in the belief that the purpose of politics is not the acquisition of power but service to one’s own people.
Several years have now passed since his death. Time blurs faces, political landscapes are redrawn and generations move on, but some people survive in memory through their character and their connections. Among the older residents of Bahawalnagar, the gatherings at the Canal Rest House, the visits during election season and the force of his conversation remain vividly preserved.
That is the real inheritance a person leaves; the way people speak of him once he is gone. Through his political life, his oratory, his refinement and his affection for ordinary people, Malik Muhammad Qasim remains a notable figure in the political history of Bahawalnagar — absent from the scene, yet present in a tradition of association that his contemporaries’ families still keep alive.
May Allah forgive the late Malik Muhammad Qasim, elevate his station and grant him a high place in Jannat-ul-Firdaus. Ameen.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Lahore Times.
Leave a Reply