HYDERABAD, Jan 12: Renowned scholar, author, linguist and former station director of Radio Pakistan Hyderabad Dr Ilyas Ishqi breathed his last in Saudi Arabia on Friday. A patient of urinal diseases he was operated upon a month ago but died due to post-operation complications. He has left behind six daughters, a son, a widow and hundreds of literary friends.

Late Ishqi was a linguist of great calibre. He was equally at home in Persian, English, Urdu, Sindhi, Hindi and Punjabi languages and received Nishan-i-Imtiaz in recognition of his services for the literature.

He translated select Sindhi poems into Urdu and also wrote articles in Punjabi. He was a poet of considerable repute and a scholar of Persian and Hindi languages.

He authored Awaz-i-Latif, Sat Hazari Dohe and many other books but despite his stature and works he had been a sort of recluse. He remained unassuming and extremely shy of publicity throughout his life.

He belonged to Yousufzai branch of Pathans. His forefathers had migrated from Afghanistan to Jaipur in India from where he later migrated to Pakistan with his father Allama Razi who himself was a renowned scholar and educationist of his time.

Late Ishqi did his graduation from Maharaja College Jaipur which he later joined as a lecturer. After migration to Pakistan he got his first job as producer in Radio Pakistan in 1950 in Lahore. He served in Peshawar, Multan, Karachi and Hyderabad radio stations during his service and produced several plays for radio and stage.