Famous Urdu writer Mumtaz Mufti remembered


ISLAMABAD, Sep 11 (APP):Famous Urdu writer Mumtaz Mufti was remembered on the occasion of his birth anniversary on Monday.
Mumtaz Hussain Mufti was born on  September 11, 1905 in Batala, east Punjab. He became a civil servant under British rule and started his career as a school teacher. At the time of partition, he migrated to Pakistan with his family.
Mumtaz Mufti started writing Urdu short stories while working as a school teacher before 1947. At the beginning of his literary career,he was considered, by other literary critics, a non-conformist writer having liberal views, who appeared influenced by Freud.
 His transformation from liberalism to Sufism was due to his inspiration from a fellow writer Qudrat Ullah Shahab. All the same, he did manage to retain his individual point of view and wrote on subjects that were frowned upon by the conservative elements in the society.
 The two phases of his life are witnessed by his autobiographies, “Ali Pur Ka Aeeli” and “Alakh Nagri”. According to forewords mentioned in his later autobiography, “Ali Pur Ka Aeeli” is an account of a lover who challenged the social taboos of his times, and  “Alakh Nagri” is an account of a devotee who is greatly influenced by mysticism.
 In recognition of his literary contribution, in 1986 he was given Sitara-e-Imtiaz and in 1989 Munshi Premchand Award.
Besides  Ali Pur Ka Aeeli  and Alakh Nagri, his works include “Docter ka istemaal”, “Ram Din”, “Un Kahi”, “Chup,Guria Ghar”, “Ismaraeen”, “Kahi Na Jai”, “Labbaik” ,”Muftianey”, “Nizam-e- Sakaa, “Roughani Putlay”, “Samay Ka Bandhan”, “Hind Yaatra”, “Piyaaz Ke Chhilkay”, “Okhay Awallay”, “Okhay Log,”and Talash.
Mumtaz Mufti died on October 27, 1995.