“EVERYTHING is funny as long as it is happening to somebody else,” Will Rogers once quipped. But most humourists from Karachi have been in the know that one of the qualities of good humour is to laugh at oneself, although laughing at others is so easy.

Karachiites have always had more than their fair share of woes: water, electricity, roads, transportation, unemployment, you name it. And almost every government department in Karachi has been dysfunctional since eternity. But Karachiites know what the art of living is, so they take it easy and laugh it off.

The humourists who have laughingly written on Karachi’s miseries are quite a few. For instance, Majeed Lahori was originally from Punjab but had settled in Karachi. In his newspaper columns and poetry, Lahori’s tongue-in-cheek take on a post-independence Karachi — the then capital of the nascent nation that was reeling under social, political and economic pressures — was quite popular. Muhammad Khalid Akhter, in his Chachcha Abdul Baqi series and novel Chakiwara Mein Visaal, cast a cynical glance over Karachi’s commercial spirit. Ibn-i-Insha in his humour columns would from time-to-time chuckle at Karachi for its oddities.

Syed Muhammad Jafri’s humorous verses did not spare Karachi when it came to cultural peculiarities. Zameer Jafri lived in Karachi for long enough to be able to spoof at its rickety buses and cramped houses. Many more humourists of Urdu have depicted Karachi, often lovingly and smilingly. But it was inimitable Mushtaq Ahmed Yousufi who often wittily commented on Karachi, its weather and people and made Karachiites laugh at themselves.

The list of Karachi humourists seems to be too long to be discussed here. But Syed Me’raaj Jaami has done a good job by compiling a tazkira or a biographical and critical record, that lists humourists from Karachi. His book Tazkira: Mazaah Nigaaraan-i-Karachi lists 98 writers from Karachi who wrote humour in prose.

Karachi’s Bazm-i-Takhleeq-i-Adab has published the book that gives brief biographical data of each humourist and a short critical evaluation of their works along with the titles of their books. The book has been divided into four sections: the first one lists the Karachi humourists who have left this ephemeral world for their heavenly abodes.

It recalls many well-known and some not-so-well-known humourists, including Majeed Lahori, Ibrahim Jalees, Ibn-i-Insha, Ibn-i-Safi, Raees Amrohvi, Mr Dehlvi, Abu Zafar Zain, Muhammad Khalid Akhter, Nasrullah Khan, Mukhtar Zaman, Mushfiq Khwaja, Naseema Bint-i-Siraaj, Shanul Haq Haqqee, Ziaul Haq Qasmi, Sabeeh Mohsin, Azher Hasan Siddiqi, Tanveer Kazmi, Mushtaq Ahmed Yousufi and some others.

The second portion lists the Karachi humourists who are alive, with the wish that they may live longer. It includes, for instance, S. M. Shahid, Rafiuddin Raaz, Dr Muhmammad Mohsin, S. H. Jafri, Dilshaad Anjum, Moin Kamali, Shujauddin Ghauri, Humaira Ather, Mirza A’asi Akhter, Durr-i-Shehwaar Qadri, Anwer Ahmed Alvi, Muhammad Haneef Shivani, Muhammad Islam, Yaqoob Ghaznavi and many more.

The third section consists of humourists whose whereabouts could not be verified despite compiler’s best efforts. They are: Sagheer Asgher Jaarchvi, Syed Mushtaq Ali, Ismatullah Khan, Shameem Hyder, Zaheer Akhter Bideri, Anjum Ansaar, Ameen Ghaaniwala, Shafeeq Zada, Muhammad Ejaz Khan and some others.

The last portion gives names of three humourists and discusses their books, although neither their biographical details nor the year of publication of their books could be ascertained. Strangely enough, the books that do not mention the year of publication are not a rarity in Urdu, they easily come by. Another issue that Jaami has also mentioned in his preface in a lighter vein is that an Urdu book that has no typographical error is still a rarity and he has apologised in advance that despite utmost care, there might have been a couple of typos in the book. In his preface, Jaami expresses his disappointment that family members of some departed humourists simply refused to co-operate, hence very little information about them could be incorporated.

Syed Me’raaj Jaami (born 1955) is a poet, humourist and has been editing a couple of literary magazines. Jaami has the distinction of having published Urdu’s first collection of senryu, a comical version of Japanese poetic genre haiku. Titled Bivi Se Chhup Kar, it was published in 2003. Jaami has 18 books to his credit. Being a humourist must have helped Jaami in compiling the book, but his vast reading of Urdu humour and his huge personal collection of books, too, must have been a great help.

The book has references and a list of sources cited. It would be of interest to those too who are doing some research on Urdu humour.

Published in Dawn, April 6th, 2026