IN the decades when Ibn-i-Safi thrilled young men with his exciting, suspenseful detective stories and fiction writers on either side of the border evoked among readers a rainbow of feelings, it was Razia Butt here who tenderly touched the hearts of young women with her light romantic novels, allowing them a privileged view of the world of dreams.

Her immense popularity - and the fact that her novels always found eager readers - produced quite a few pretenders. (Even some low-profile actresses took up her name.) Senior critics may dismiss her novels as “anti-literature”, but they cannot deny their role in giving a welcome fillip to reading habits among middle-class women, long before the onslaught of 24/7 television channels.

With her age approaching 85, Razia is no longer writing fiction. But the activist in her is as energetic as it was during her student days when she wholeheartedly took part in the Pakistan Movement. She heads a women`s modest club, which she is reluctant to call a non-governmental organisation. “We, a group of 25 women, help some poor children with their education, arrange poor girls` weddings and even extend small interest-free loans to women in need,” she says in an interview with Dawn.

“We have left bigger responsibilities to NGOs.”

Though in veil, she took an active part in the Pakistan Movement, working as the propaganda secretary of the Muslim League`s women`s wing. She recalls the enthusiasm the Muslim women of the subcontinent had for an independent homeland. “In Peshawar we took to the streets, with faces always covered but sometimes barefoot, when we agitated an issue provoked by the governments in the capital of Delhi or in provinces,” she says. “But the situation in the country is quite depressing now. Of course, this is not the Pakistan we had dreamt of and struggled for,” she says and adds “We can only pray it will overcome its problems soon and that it will live on.”

A brilliant student often grabbing top positions in her school and college examinations, she particularly recalls an incident “When my teacher gave me 100 marks in my Urdu paper, the British head of the school was not impressed. She said it was impossible to get 100 per cent marks in a language paper. My teacher replied that my paper was so good that if she had the authority, she would give me 150 marks out of 100.”

She was born on May 19, 1924 in Rawalpindi in a Kashmiri family. She got her education in Peshawar, where she began her writing career with her first short story published in a literary magazine in 1944. She also wrote plays for Peshawar radio, which was the only radio station, thanks to Ghaffar Khan`s enlightenment, in what is now Pakistan. The other three stations were in Calcutta, Bombay and Delhi.

When she was in BA part 1, she got married and moved to Ambala where her husband was posted. Her education and writing career came to a halt. With independence, hers was a fortunate family that arrived safely in Pakistan on August 18, 1947 as subsequent trains were attacked and passengers massacred in their thousands at the border with India. Her husband was posted in Peshawar.

Razia reappeared on the literary scene with a proverbial bang when her first novel, Naheed, was published in 1954 or 1955. She has almost written a novel a year since, completing a half century of novels in almost the same number of years.

She says she was never a workaholic. She achieved this remarkable goal without compromising her family obligations. “I took proper care of my daughters and wrote at noon when my husband, a superintendent in the military accounts, was away at work.” Obviously, she could not attend literary gatherings for which initially she received many invitations from within and without the country. “But I did not reject an invitation if it was from a college or university,” she adds.

Several of her novels have been adapted for films - Saiqa, Naila, Aneela. Besides, a number of her novels have been serialised by TV channels with Najiah being the last such book, which was made into 100 episodes by a private channel.

Her novels seemed to have given ready-made names for girls as previously most of these names were rare Noreen, Naila, Bismah, Mehru, Anita, Beena, Raabi, Mahrukh, Najiah, Sameena, Shaheena, Gul Bano, Sarah, Resham and Sabeen.

Although her earlier novels were pure romance, soon she began highlighting social issues through her novels. Her last novel, Naasoor, deals with child labour.

Now she has restricted herself to reading newspaper headlines and has stopped writing for the last three years or so. “If somebody wants to read my works, I have written about 50 novels and half a dozen collections of short stories - enough to quench the thirst of any reader. So I no longer feel the need to write.”

She began with reading a novel by M. Aslam and then read almost all major fiction writers. “I like every good piece of writing, no matter who wrote it. Sometimes one comes across a piece in a newspaper that may be really delightful.”