Mushtaq Ahmed Yousufi, celebrated satirist and humourist, passed away in Karachi on Wednesday, DawnNewsTV reported.

The 95-year-old wordsmith par excellence had been suffering from a protracted ailment.

He had been born on August 4, 1923, in the Tonk district of Rajasthan, India.

After Partition, he migrated to Karachi in 1956.

Yousufi, a banker by profession, was awarded the Sitara-i-Imtiaz in 1999 and the Hilal-i-Imtiaz in 2002 — the highest literary honour given by the government to civilians.

His Chiraagh Talay (1961) had established him as a humorist who knew how to use repartee and pun. His other works, Khakam Badahan (1970), Zarguzasht (1976) and Aab-i-Gum (1990) only reaffirmed his status as a great wit and a master prose writer of Urdu.

What made Yousufi remarkable was not only his wordplay and repartee, but his refraining from traditional ways of invoking mirth, such as situational comedy or slapstick. His one-liners are often quoted in Urdu’s literary works.