Presiding over the event, poet Anwar Shaoor said that despite the longevity of the programme (speakers before him took some time to present their arguments) was not sufficient to know Mr Hussain. He claimed that the visiting guest is a multitalented person, who has a sound judgment (sa’ib-ur-ra’i). To support his claim he mentioned Mr Hussain’s book Faiz Ki Muhabbat Mein.
Poet Firasat Rizvi said the first thing that comes to mind while speaking about Mr Hussain is that there are basically three facets to his personality. The first is: he is a poet. He began his literary career by composing verses. Poetry is his first love. His second love is the legendary poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz.
“It was in 1974 that he [Hussain] did his MA in Urdu literature from the University of Karachi and wrote a thesis to obtain the degree. There are a good number of people whose MA theses have proven to be more important than their PhD research papers.
For example, the book that Dr Farman Fatehpuri wrote on Urdu Ruba’i was basically the thesis that he wrote when he was in pursuit of an MA in 1958. Hussain penned his thesis on Faiz which was published by Idara-i-Yadgaar-i-Ghalib in the late 1970s. It was the first book of criticism on Faiz,” he said.
