When Iqbal Bano Defied Zia’s Dictatorship To Sing ‘Hum Dekheinge’ At Alhamra

By Ali Madeeh Hashmi

Ali Madeeh writes about Iqbal Bano’s concert at Al Hamra, Lahore in 1986 where she defied dictatorial restrictions and sang Faiz Ahmad Faiz’s iconic ‘Hum Dekhein Ge’ to thunderous cheers.

“Jab arz-e-ḳhudā ke ka.abe se/sab but uThvā.e jā.eñge/ ham ahl-e-safā mardūd-e-haram/ masnad pe biThā.e jā.eñge”-Faiz Ahmed Faiz

I recently witnessed a Twitter spat about a concert by the legendary Iqbal Bano at the 1986 ‘Faiz Mela’ where she sang Faiz’s rousing ‘wa-yabqa-wajh-o-rabbik’ (a Quranic verse from Surah Rahman meaning, literally, ‘the face of your Lord’).

The poem is more popularly known by its refrain ‘Hum Dekhenge’ and is one of Faiz’s poems ‘censored’ in his life time with one verse being permanently excised, even from his complete works ‘Nuskha hai wafa’)

While there is no video of Iqbal Bano’s performance, audio recordings give some idea of the power of her rendition and the effect it had on the assembled crowd of hundreds of people at Lahore’s Alhamra Arts Council on February 13, 1986.

But first, some background.

Faiz Ahmed Faiz died on November 20, 1984. I know this first hand because on the evening of November 19, 1984, Faiz, my…