ISLAMABAD, Jan 8: Critics and admirers remembered Mehboob Azmi on Saturday as a poet who closely observed the social and political attitudes but described them in lighter vein.

Pakistan Academy of Letters (PAL) in collaboration with literary organisation Inheraaf launched two books of the late poet on his second death anniversary.

The two poetic collections, Mukarrar Kahay Baghair and Kaisay Kahoon, consist of couplets, poems and parodies.

Scholars and poets, including Dr Alamgir Hashmi, Sarfraz Shahid, Dr Nisar Turabi, Anjum Khalil and Manzoorul Wahab, expressed their views on the personality and works of late Azmi.

Dr Ejaz Rahim, former caretaker federal minister for health, termed Azmi’s books milestones in the humorous Urdu literature. He said he made social and political behaviours subjects of his poetry and criticised the drawbacks with humour and wit.

“Azmi’s poetry gets his readers close to ground realities in the country. The poet was aware of rational use of words and phrases reflecting humane characteristics,” he said.

Dr Hashmi said Azmi’s poetry contained qualities of good humour, adding that he covered all aspects of contemporary life. Poet Sarfraz Shahid said initially Azmi was a poet of ghazals. But in the company of humorous poets, he also started composing couplets (Qat’aat) in which he described social, political and economic themes in lighter vein, he said.

“Azmi manages a special cultural taste in his poetry and never used a word without any cultural reference. This makes his poetry rich in poetical substance. He had a refined and cultured attitude towards judicious use of words in his poetry,” commented Dr Turabi.

Anjum Khaliq said unlike other humorous poets of his age, Azmi chose serious social issues to pinpoint deficiencies in the society.

He called him a poet of Akbar Allahabadi’s tradition whose poetry was a mixture of humour and social awareness. Manzoorul Wahab said Azmi wrote a parody of Iqbal’s “Shikwa” in concise language.Tariq Shahid, son of Azmi, said his father never did poetry only for poetry’s sake, but took as a tool to comment social behaviours.

A poet and a fiction writer, Mehboob Elahi Qureshi, who came to be known as Mehboob Azmi, was born in Simla, East Punjab, India on October 12, 1921.

After migrating to Pakistan in 1947, he joined the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in 1964 and served the external publicity wing and mobile information unit. He died on January 8, 2009. —By Mohammad Saleem Shahid