LAHORE: Renowned jour­nalist, playwright and poet Munoo Bhai passed away here on Friday. He was 84.

He leaves behind his wife, a son and a daughter.

He had been in hospital since Dec 22 last year, suffering from multiple medical complexities.

He was laid to rest later in the day. A large number of people, including journalists, artists, intellectuals, writers, civil society members and his friends and colleagues, attended the funeral.

Munoo Bhai was born on Feb 6, 1933 in Wazirabad. His real name was Munir Ahmed Qureshi.

Ahmed Bilal, a nephew of his, told Dawn that since Munoo Bhai’s father was a railway station master, his family moved from city to city when he was young. He did his graduation from Rawalpindi and launched his journalistic career by writing columns for Imroze and Zamindar.

As one of the major and pioneering playwrights of the PTV, he has to his credit popular plays such as Sona Chandi, Jhok Siyal,Jheel, Dasht, Ashyiana and Ye Khanai Nahin. Munoo Bhai also wrote long plays for the PTV, Gumshuda and Khoobsurat being prominent among them.

As a poet of the Punjabi language, he has one anthology to his name, Ajay Qayamat Nayeen Ayee. His column Gareban was extremely popular among newspaper readers. He was awarded the Pride of Performance in 2007.

Veteran newsman Hussain Naqi said Munoo Bhai was a journalist of high calibre and had remained very active in trade union. Mr Naqi recalled the days when he used to visit Munoo Bhai at his Sanda residence during the 1971 war and how they used to have sittings with legendary artist Sadequain at his place.

Mushtaq Soofi, intellectual and poet, said that one could not separate the writings of Munoo Bhai from his personality. “He was a soul committed to his ideology,” is how Mr Soofi paid tribute to the departing giant of Pakistani writing.

For Rashid Dar who produced TV serial Sona Chandi Munoo Bhai was a “playwright of rare quality”.

Playwright Shahid Nadeem remembered Munoo Bhai for his participation in many movements such as the journalists’ campaign against the Zia regime. “He was a progressive writer who strictly followed his ideology his whole life,” Mr Nadeem said.

Former PTV producer Hafeez Tahir said Munoo Bhai taught drama writing to many youngsters and introduced several new artists in his plays.

Ayub Khawar, another former PTV producer, writer and poet, termed Platform as one of Munoo Bhai’s best plays. “Munoo Bhai’s characters always represented common people,” he said.

According to playwright Asghar Nadeem Syed, Munoo Bhai gave new vistas to Punjabi language in his poetry.

Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi expressed grief and sorrow over the demise of Munoo Bhai. He lauded the role of Munoo Bhai in highlighting social issues and concern for differently-abled persons and praised his standards of humanity throughout his life.

Published in Dawn, January 20th, 2018