July 08, 2008	Tuesday	Rajab 4, 1429

PESHAWAR, July 7: Prominent Urdu poet and writer Khatir Ghaznavi, who died in a Karachi hospital on Sunday, was laid to rest here on Monday.

A recipient of the presidential award, Khater Ghaznavi was also known as a researcher, columnist, educationist and vice-president of the NWFP chapter of Progressive Writers’ Association. Ghaznavi was born in 1925 into an Afghan family which had migrated from Ghazni.

Ghaznavi, who retired as the chairman of the Urdu Department, University of Peshawar, wrote his first novel when he was a school student.

Survived by three sons and four daughters, Ghaznavi wrote more than 50 books in Urdu and Hindko. He was among the widely-read authors in the country.

His columns on a wide variety of issues, used to appear in several Urdu newspapers. The founder of a syndicate of writers and “Baitakh”, a Hindko literary organisation, Ghaznavi worked as producer at the All India Radio, Radio Pakistan, Peshawar and Rawalpindi, between 1942 and 1962.

He donated hundreds of books to the University of Peshawar. He headed the Pakistan Academy of Letters, Islamabad.

Ghaznvi, whose original name was Ibrahim, had command over several languages, including Chinese, English, Urdu, and Malay.