The Prisoner Of The Hague

The Prisoner Of The Hague
Author	Ehsan Sehgal
Year Published	2018
Language	Urdu

The Prisoner Of The Hague is an Urdu autobiography, authored by acclaimed Dutch-Pakistani poet, writer, and journalist Ehsan Sehgal. It presents the grief of life, happiness, sadness, agony, hope, disappointment and a lot of other issues Ehsan Sehgal faced in his life when he left Pakistan and settled abroad. ^[1]

Summary[edit]

The Prisoner of The Hague is an autobiography, written by Ehsan Sehgal. It presents the grief of life, happiness, sadness, agony, hope, disappointment and a lot of other issues Ehsan Sehgal faced in his life when he left Pakistan and settled abroad. He had to leave the country due to the fear of political victimization in Pakistan (in the Ziaul Haque era; the then dictator General Ziaul Haque had ousted an elected prime minister of Pakistan Zulfikar Ali Bhutto) and at reaching Holland he had to face a lot of problems.^[1]

Theme of story[edit]

Ehsan Sehgal is a Dutch-Pakistani poet, author, and journalist who left Pakistan in November 1978, during General Zia Ul Haq era. Ehsan Sehgal wrote his autobiography, covering events and secrets of 38 years in the Netherlands. Sehgal wrote in his book that the elected prime minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto's death sentence on 4 April 1979 was only the conspiracy of a few Generals, with most of the Ahmadi Generals behind this with the help of judicial criminals. He wrote that when he landed and asked for political asylum in the Netherlands, he approached several diplomatic mission, and demonstrated for the release of Bhutto.

Sehgal wrote that in January 1980, in a very early morning at about 4 O'clock, several policemen in civil dress, came and rushed to his apartment and arrested him, without any legitimate reasons, while he showed them the documents of the Privy Council that permitted him to stay in the Netherlands, but police refused that and brought him to a jail cell. Later, they released him. That situation became a time bomb upon his senses and emotions, which caused a collapse of physical spirit and a great shock. The arrest reason was a letter, written by his brother in law that destroyed his health, career, and marital life. After those all circumstances, he claims that he was harassed and psychologically tortured, with the conspiracy of his brother in law.

Sehgal wrote that He was telling his wife that he felt no comfort in his mind, as like someone was giving some sort of chemical, which was causing physical and mental anguish. He opined that his opponents started black magic practices; though others considered it as a psychological matter and problem. In June 1980, Sehgal invited a few Pakistani high-ranked officials from different institutions who came to the Netherlands for professional and educational training in various subjects. Sehgal also asked a Pakistan couple to join him. After this occasion, within an hour, Sehgal suffered from the unknown attack on his body and mind; he believes it was magic, or poison, to kill him since he was writing and talking against the Zia military régime.

An invited woman prepared and served tea, which no one drank except her and Sehgal. When they left, after a few hours, he felt a terrible physically attack that he felt has affected him for more than forty years. Surprisingly that lady had the same attack, as he came to know. Sehgal, time to time, every year, requested to the concerned ministries, institutions, law offices, courts, police, and even the media, to investigate the incident, but the answer was hopeless or utterly silent, which established only doubts, worries, and insecure feelings about the institutions of the Netherlands Government. Sehgal wrote, that such conduct blocked and violated human rights and fair and transparent justice within a civilized society. Sehgal said, that after his divorce and a letter to Pakistan authorities, in which he claimed that Indian intelligence sources and diplomats tried to misemploy him but failed. After that letter, he came under harassment, spy and psychological war since March 2013. He felt that his privacy had been violated by International Intelligence Agencies in that part of the world. Sehgal wondered the reason why others did not wish to investigate the incident when he offered his services for free. Sehgal has written about his life and stays determined until his last breath to disclose the happenings of that incident. Moreover, He mentioned his literary trips in London, UK, and pilgrimage to Mecca for Hajj with his mother and sister in 1986.

The autobiography consists of 420 pages, reveals many factors of life. He had diagnosed advanced cancer in 2017 that he considered it was the fault and ignorance of the doctors, who didn't realize his symptoms seriously, even he told and insisted them. Sehgal also didn't exclude the possibility of both incidents in 1980 and 2017, occurred due to some kinds of chemicals to damage his health by opponents and hired ones.^{[2][3] [1]}

See also[edit]

• The Wise Way
• Breathing Words
• The Writing That Fragrances
• Zarb-e-Sukhan

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• The Prisoner Of The Hague - Google Books