Renowned political cartoonist Rafique Ahmed Multani, better known as Feica, suffered a stroke after which he was hospitalised at the Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH) on Wednesday,He was serving as staffer of English daily"Dawn".South Punjab News reported
Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah took notice of Feica's illness and announced that the provincial government will bear the expenses of his treatment.
Shah, according to his spokesperson, enquired AKUH doctors about Feica's health and prayed for his full recovery.
Rafique Ahmed was born in 1957 in Multan and went to the National College of Arts (NCA) in Lahore. After graduating, he started working with several magazines and newspapers, including
The Muslim,
The Star,
Dawn,
Hurriyat and the
Frontier Post. he was very close to Sadiq Jafari when he reached at Karachi from Multan with his motor cycle and other goods. Fieca presented him his cartoon.
When I visited Karachi and I met him because he loves to all Multanites while he was my age fellow. He is a very bold cartoonist who never afraid of Zia-ul-Haq Martial law.There are very few cartoonists in South Asia and even fewer who use their sketches to take on its governments and politicians
Feica was in Peshawar as an art instructor at a workshop on understanding intolerance through artistic activities, jointly arranged by Hunerkada and Directorate of Culture Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P). “Honestly speaking, it seemed a bit odd to me to come to Peshawar when artist Jamal Shah asked me to attend this workshop,” he said, citing concerns regarding the recent bomb explosions. However, on Shah’s insistence, Feica had no choice but to pack his bags and come.
During the week, he had been teaching a group of students the intricacies of caricature and cartooning. Praising their talent and abounding enthusiasm, Feica said it was refreshing to teach arts. He was particularly pleased that young girls from Mardan had also come to the workshop to take lessons which, he said, they will disseminate to others in their villages.
When asked how teaching arts to a dozen students will affect those tens of thousands of people who look down upon art and scoff, Feica said that “art could bring change in people. Those who are fighting do not know arts; an artist is not a jahil and does not go on blowing up schools,” he said while citing the surge in attacks on culture and arts. “I fell ill after watching destruction of Buddhas of Bamiyan on television.”
Meanwhile, about the general ignorance and apathy towards art in the country, the veteran cartoonist was of the view that it’s the responsibility of the elders of the country to instill an interest and passion for art to the younger ones. “A society cannot exist without art. A society without art it is like a paratha without ghee.”
However, he sees a silver lining for arts and artists in the country. “Artists have shone in difficult times and have taken inspirations from ordeals and sufferings to create work for peace,” he said, with a hopeful smile.
