Poet & writer
Habib Jalib
ਹਬੀਬ ਜਾਲਿਬحبیب جالب
Revolutionary poet born near Hoshiarpur, jailed again and again in Pakistan for poems against military rule.
Habib Jalib was born in 1928 near Hoshiarpur in the eastern Punjab and moved to Pakistan after Partition. He began as a romantic poet and became the fiercest political poet of his country.
When Ayub Khan imposed a new constitution in 1962 he wrote Dastoor, I do not accept this rule of the few, and it became a slogan of protest. He was jailed under Ayub, Bhutto and Zia, and recited his poems to crowds in the streets of Lahore.
He died in Lahore in 1993, poor and unbowed. His poems are still shouted at protests in Pakistan.
