ISLAMABAD: Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) and Pakistan Academy of Letters (PAL) will jointly hold a memorial reference on Tuesday (today) to pay tributes to famous Urdu and Punjabi poet, playwright and rights activist Ahmed Salim who passed away in Islamabad after a protracted illness on December 10.

He was buried in Lahore at the graveyard of Miani Sahib. He remained associated with the SDPI till his last breath. The reference will be held at the auditorium of PAL at 2pm.

Ahmed Salim was the author of over 175 books in Urdu and Punjabi on different topics from fiction, poetry and drama to history and culture.

He claimed to have been intellectually raised in the company of two great contemporary poets, Faiz Ahmed Faiz and Ustad Daman.

Writers and intellectuals will eulogise the woks and struggle of Ahmed Salim who was also one of the leading activists of the Progressive Literary Movement of Pakistan.

Speakers on the occasion will be Federal Minister for Culture Jamal Shah, Iftikhar Arif, Kishwar Naheed, Asma Sherazi, Dr Abid Qaiyum Suleri, retired Brig Mohammad Yasin, HRCP Secretary General Harris Khalique, Parveen Malik, Dr Humaira Ashfaq, Dr Shafqat Munir, Farhatullah Babar, Senator Taj Haider, Barrister Naseem Bajwa, Navsharan Singh, Raza Naeem, Wajahat Masood, Niaz Nadeem, Dr Jaffer Ahmed, Mehwish Ahmed, Dr Pritam Singh, Afzaal Ahmed, Rana Fawad and Akhtar Usman.

Published in Dawn, December 19th, 2023