KARACHI, July 6: Noted fiction writer, columnist and playwright Hameed Kashmiri died of heart failure here on Sunday. He was 73.

Born on June 1, 1930, in Murree, Mr Kashmiri became associated with Pakistan Television shortly after its advent in Karachi. He wrote 33 serials, 68 plays and 20 long plays for PTV.

He has to his credit many popular plays, including “Emergency Ward”, “Rozan-i-Zindan”, “Shikast-i-Aarzo”, “Aitaraf”, “Kashkol”, “Laghzish” and “Haft Asman”. He also wrote the script of Zia Mohyeddin Show.

Mr Kashmiri’s first collection of short stories, which was titled Deewarain, came out in 1965 while the second, Sarhadain, was published in 1993. Mr Kashimiri also authored 15 novels, including “Adhoray khawab”, “Kashkol”, “Rungul” and “Pehla adami”.

He wrote plays for radio as well. His radio play, “Emergency ward”, ran into 16 episodes. He also wrote stage plays. One of them was “Khoon aur pani”. He also tried his hand at writing telefilms.

Mr Kashmiri was a columnist as well. His columns appeared in Masawat for seven years, in Anjam for three years, in Nusrat for one year, in Hurriyat for four years and in Nigar for six years.

Mr Kashmiri was also associated with the cinema industry. He made a few documentary movies.

In 1973, Mr Kashmiri clinched an award at the Munich Drama Festival for his play “Pat jhar key bad”. He received awards from the Pakistan Writers Guild, Nigar and human-rights organizations. In 2002, he received the ARY Gold Award.

Mr Kashmiri has left behind a widow, three daughters and one son. His funeral will be held on Monday.