KARACHI: The Pakistan Academy of Letters (PAL) has given the Kamal-i-Fun Award for the year 2024 to eminent Urdu poet Iftikhar Arif for his invaluable contribution to literature.

This was announced by the academy at a recent press conference.

Mr Arif was born in Lucknow on March 21, 1944. He did his MA from Lucknow University in 1965 after which he migrated to Pakistan. In Karachi, he was employed at PTV in the script department. He shot to national fame when he appeared in a quiz show Kasauti along with Obaidullah Baig and Quresh Pur.

Mr Arif has published to critical and commercial acclaim four collections of Urdu poems (ghazals and nazms). They are: Mehr-i-Do Neem, Harf-i-Baryaab, Jahan-i-Maloom and Bagh-i-Gul-i-Surkh. His work has been translated into English by prominent scholars. Written in the Season of Fear and The Twelfth Man are two widely read translated books. He is the recipient of the President’s Pride of Performance, the Hilal-i-Imtiaz, the Sitara-i-Imtiaz and the Nishan-i-Imtiaz.

Mr Arif has worked in a number of important positions at national and international levels. He has headed the Pakistan Academy of Letters, the National Language Authority, and the National Book Foundation. He was also president of the ECO Cultural Institute in Tehran and the head of the National Language Promotion Department, National History and Literary Heritage Division, Islamabad.

Mr Arif’s literary achievements are marked by traditional aspects of Urdu poetry seamlessly blended with modern literary and linguistic trends. He has employed the metaphor of the tragedy of Karbala in his poems in a remarkable way, highlighting the importance of sacrifice in religion. One of his extremely well-known and oft-quoted couplets in that context is:

Husain tum nahin rahey tumara ghar nahin raha

Magar tumharey baad zalimon ka dar nahin raha

[Husain, you lost your home, your life

But your sacrifice has enabled us not to fear the oppressor]

Published in Dawn, April 15th, 2025