With my recent love for Habib Jalib sahab here’s one of his finest poems. The fact that it pretty much implies for every era is commendable. The poem was originally written In 1962, when Field Marshal Ayub Khan formulated the new constitution and was playing the flute of his administrative capabilities, Jalib called it faulty. He called it a tool of exploitation and wrote his most memorable poem Dastoor which shattered the manipulated intentions of the government.
Deep jis ka sirf mehellaat hi main jalay,
Chand logon ki khushyon ko lay ker chalay,
Wo jo saye main har maslihat kay palay;
Aisay dastoor ko,
Subh e bay noor ko,
Main naheen maanta,
Main naheen jaanta.
The light which shines only in palaces
Burns up the joy of the people in the shadows
Derives its strength from others’ weakness
That kind of system,
like dawn without light
I refuse to acknowledge,
I refuse to accept
Main bhee kha’if naheen takhta e daar say,
Main bhee Mansoor hoon, keh do aghyaar say,
Kyun daraatay ho zindaan ki divar say,
Zulm ki baat ko,
Jehel ki raat ko,
Main naheen maanta,
Main naheen jaanta.
I am not afraid of execution,
Tell the world that I am the martyr
How can you frighten me with prison walls?
This overhanging doom,
this night of ignorance,
I refuse to acknowledge,
I refuse to accept
Phool shaakhon pay khilnay lagay tum kaho,
Jaam rindon ko milnay lagay tum kaho,
Chak seenon kay silnay lagay tum kaho,
Iss khulay jhoot ko,
Zehan ki loot ko,
Main naheen maanta,
Main naheen jaanta.
“Flowers are budding on branches”, that’s what you say,
“Every cup overflows”, that’s what you say,
“Wounds are healing themselves”, that’s what you say,
These bare-faces lies,
this insult to the intelligence,
I refuse to acknowledge,
I refuse to accept
Tum nay loota hai sadyon hamara sakoon,
Ab na hum per chalay ga tumhara fasoon,
Chara gar main tumhain kiss tara say kahoon?
Tum naheen charaagar,
Koi maanay magar,
Main naheen maanta,
Main naheen jaanta.
For centuries you have all stolen our peace of mind
But your power over us is coming to an end
Why do you pretend you can cure pain?
Even if some claim that you’ve healed them,
I refuse to acknowledge,
I refuse to accept.
And now time for some punjabi touch to it 
My apologies to all the Mushy fans out there, but I had to put it up without bias and editing.Please dont judge me for it but I tend to like Shareef Sahab’s voice too 
PS : Not that I know editing anyway 
Apart from being on a Shameless self marketing spree the author is a Feature Editor (South Asia) at BEE magazine. BEE is a quarterly journal published in Britain, focusing on Asian Women. The author identified the need for a magazine that brings out the intellectual side of Asian women and accepted read *grabbed* the opportunity. A very proud member of Amnesty International Online Community where she helps gain focus for the humanitarian Crisis at hand. This is her personal space where she plans to store all her published and unpublished rants.She is also known to be very lucky with her readers which explains her presence on several other Blogs Pro-Pakistan,Global Voices
31 Comments
October 16, 2008 at 7:21 PM
[...] This cup of tea was served by: Mystified Justice [...]
October 16, 2008 at 7:39 PM
Thanks for the translation! Vaise bhi bino iske mujhe aadhe se zyada samajh mein nahin aate. Anyway he seems to have expressed himself very strongly. Giving voice to those that do not have one is a very heavy burden to put on one’s shoulders. He must have been a brave man to attempt it. I enjoyed the poem. A nice way to end the day.
October 16, 2008 at 7:42 PM
Thank u
a glad u did .. n lol at the little bits of urdu u used 
. The poem surely is amazing its written in such high spirits that one cant help but relate to it 
October 16, 2008 at 9:23 PM
One of my favorite poems of Jalib sahib.
Thanks for sharing
October 17, 2008 at 12:41 AM
Le Mystique : thank u for ur visit
and its one of my favorities too amazing words said in high spirits 
October 17, 2008 at 2:17 AM
Sana…Very Nice!…Jalib has always been one of my favorites and in fact this poem was the first one that attracted me to him long time ago. It is a beautiful poem! Thankyou
October 17, 2008 at 5:43 AM
Oh My God So Great.. & He Is Really A Good Singer Man.. Do You Have A Audio File Of This?
October 17, 2008 at 8:33 AM
Zios u r most welcome
Jalib Sahab is truly amazing 
but I dont have an audio to it, it was a sponatneous act done in a recent speech 
. One of these momment make me forgets how much I hate youtube otherwise 
Harris I loved his voice too
October 17, 2008 at 3:31 PM
no problem ill convert this file into audio..
October 22, 2008 at 6:56 AM
Thanks for sharing these beautiful verses. Here, I would like to mention that few days back I was watching a package by Geo giving the glimpses of Jalib Sahab’s family and my heart was aching to see that families of such personalities are suffering due to poverty. I wonder why we are a nation whose learned are always poor!!!!
October 22, 2008 at 8:09 PM
Dr.farukh welcome to my blog
and yes it is indeed a very sad thing, I recently heard about this artists NGO working in helping artists that have served the country in times of need. A very confused whether that actually was about Pakistan, I think I ll look into it.
October 23, 2008 at 8:58 AM
needless to say how powerful these verses are. thanks for posting it
for us.
October 23, 2008 at 2:36 PM
Ammar :
October 27, 2008 at 1:07 PM
Tremendous Poem.
Mein Bhi Nahin Manta.
February 28, 2009 at 7:54 PM
[...] (Translation courtesy http://sanasaleem.com/2008/10/16/habib-jalibs-dastoor-main-nahin-manta/) [...]
March 2, 2009 at 6:51 PM
in every era and regime our government turns out to be worse than ever but today its acting like tomorrow:P..however it is more like yesterday’s sycophants morphed into tomorrow’s shoe seekers..
great work Jalib!
thanks for sharing such a great poem
March 9, 2009 at 8:43 PM
i love him(JALiB), He is my hero, and my inspiration, his motivational poems towards revolt against the capitalists is SPOT ON,
March 13, 2009 at 11:49 AM
he is such a great poet the heroofnation i sliute habib jalib
March 13, 2009 at 9:46 PM
is there any site,where i can download this song..
March 14, 2009 at 1:18 PM
i like this poetry
March 17, 2009 at 5:25 PM
Please Check These Pages And Find Some Mistakes And Please Reply My Thanks..
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March 21, 2009 at 3:04 PM
[...] ‘Dastoor’ was originally written in 1962 against Ayub’s bogus constitution. Today the words of the poem are as relevant as they were over forty years ago. Indeed I would go further any say that Jalib’s ‘dastoor’ is even more relevant today than even before against the false ‘dastoor’ of Dogar and Musharraf. Hence I repeat the iconic words of Habib Jalib’s ‘Dastoor’ with English translation thanks to Sana Saleem’s blog Mystified Justice. [...]
March 31, 2009 at 1:15 AM
simply awesome!
April 4, 2009 at 4:35 PM
Pakistan Zindabad
We do have talent sometimes in form of Habib Jalib and sometimes in form of Imran Khan.
Imran Khan Zindabad
May 8, 2009 at 5:58 AM
Whats awfully sad is that poems in urdu are so open worded they lend themselves to anything you decide to render them too. I’m sure Jalib sahab must be turning in his grave seeing the likes of the Shariffs using his poetry!
on a lighter note: the man REALLY CAN’T SING.
May 10, 2009 at 9:33 PM
@ Sohail: Welcome to my blog
and I believe its not awful but indeed beautiful how Jalib’s words are still applicable today 
however some tend to abuse it but then thats ok
October 28, 2009 at 3:45 PM
I was looking for his poetry on net as he is one the revolutionary poets who Allah sent to us and here I am, got both, his poetry and also rendering my tribute to his superb lines.
Keep the flag flying……..
November 13, 2009 at 1:47 PM
i love your blog, and its nice, attractive and full of amazing words.
the poem you published is really a symbol of encouragement for young people, whatever circumstances we face, we need to know the difference between right and wrong, justice and injustice…
December 22, 2009 at 6:05 PM
Its realy amazing poem,thanks for publishing it on the internet.when “charaagh charaagh”will burn each and other light will be spread over our society +9203006087151
January 6, 2010 at 5:18 PM
AISI PPP ki govt ko main nahin janta main nahin manta
June 30, 2010 at 9:50 PM
i am dedicating hereunder my poetry to great
revolutionary poet Habib Jalib.
CHAND QARUNI LUTAYROON KI AYASHI KAY SABAB
BHOOK O AFLAS KA YE DOUR HAY AAYA TUJ PER
AY WATAN TERI TABAHI MAIN MERRA DOSH NAHI
PHIR BE CHUP REHNAY KA ILZAM TO AAYA MUJ PER
POET. NASIR GILANI