Prominent artist and social worker Jimmy Engineer on Thursday said that it is important to revive the spirit of Pakistan Movement in order to pull the country out of crisis and to put it on a path of progress, development and prosperity.
In an interview, Jimmy Engineer said that the youth needed to be reminded of sufferings and the sacrifices of the millions of men and women who had struggled for the creating of this country.
“Somehow we have forgotten the sacrifices, struggles and sufferings of our forefathers and today we need to revive the spirit of the Pakistan Movement,” he said.
He said the trauma of the partition had inspired his paintings three decades ago.
He added that over the years, he had made donations from the sales of his paintings to various educational institutes, organizations and other places of public interest to revive the sentiment of the Pakistan Movement and to remind people of the sacrifices of their forefathers. He said that he is even willing to donate paintings to all institutions and organizations for the benefit of the public.
He said that his Pakistan Movement paintings had given huge recognition in not only in Pakistan but all over the world. He expressed pride in his work and how it had created an everlasting imprint of the Pakistan Movement and its historical importance.
He explained his family background in context of the partition, saying that he was born in a Parsi family from Loralai, Balochistan seven years after Pakistan had come into existence.
He believes his ability to paint on huge canvasses to be a gift from God and he added that he feels it was his purpose in life to paint the trauma of the partition.
He explained that it was in the early 1970s that he had started dreaming of bloodshed and violence.
Perplexed over the meaning of these dreams, he had visited several religious scholars like Sufi Barkat Ali of Darul Ehsan, Salarwala near Faisalabad who advised him to start painting his dreams.
He had acted accordingly and realized his paintings showed the bloodshed and the suffering from the time of the partition.
He added that he was proud of being the artist who has done a series of paintings that are now known as Pakistan Movement paintings and which have received such recognition and respect.
Regarding the next display of his paintings, he said he would do so when he was assured of the safety and secure transportation of his expensive paintings.
He said his two original paintings of the Pakistan Movement were on permanent display, one each at the National Art Gallery in Islamabad and the Permanent Art Gallery in the Alhamra Cultural Complex in Lahore.
