SAHIWAL: A literary conference on renowned Urdu poet Majeed Amjad under the auspices of the Sahiwal Art Council was held at Zila Council and Jinnah halls here on Sunday.

Amjad spent 29 years of his life (1945-1974) in Sahiwal which was then called Montgomery. He was born in district Jhang in 1924 and graduated from Lahore in 1934 but his career in the food department as well as literary journey started from Sahiwal. He lived in one of quarters at the Farid Town and remained in the city until his death in 1974.

The conference had three sessions, titled tradition and literary stature, Majeed Amjad and New Generation and Majeed Amjad and Montgomery. The first session was chaired by Dr Saadat Saeed while Dr Qazi Abid, Dr Roshan Nadeem, Dr Tahira Iqbal and Prof Ikhlaq Hussain read out their papers on Majeed’s poetry in it. The session was moderated by Hina Jamshaid. The second session was chaired by Dr Amir Sohail of the University of Sargodha and Dr Rukhsana Baloch of the Govt Women University, Faisalabad. Dr Zafar Hussain Haraal and Dr Mazhar Abbas of the Islamia University, Bahawalpur read out their papers.

Dr Amir who has done his PhD thesis on Amjad said he had given new meanings to Urdu poem. “Amjad still needs to be rediscovered,” he stressed.

Dr Riaz said Amjad’s poetry can be divided into three periods; one from 1944 to 1956, second from 1956 to 1968 and the last period from 1968 till his death in 1974.

Dr Zafar Haraal said Amjad was not popular in his own time but he was very much respected in all the literary circles both in India and Pakistan.

“He has created his own wonder world and later lost this world. In Urdu poem, he was pioneer of creating new language.”

Dr Haraal said Amjad was a fan of Indian film actress Nargis and many researchers found Nargis’ pictures in his possessions.

Published in Dawn, May 14th, 2018