KARACHI: The Arts Council of Pakistan highlighted literary achievements of Urdu and Punjabi poet, the late Munir Niazi, at a programme held on Wednesday evening to mark his 98th birth anniversary on Thursday.
Presiding over the event, poetess Zehra Nigah said there’s no doubt that Munir Niazi was an eminent poet. She had not met him frequently and only interacted with him at mushairas, but she is familiar with his work in depth.
Ms Nigah said writer Salimur Rehman, shedding light on Mr Niazi’s poetry, has mentioned three major symbols: death, dusk and wind.
“I often say that the first ghazal or nazm in the first collection of a poet signals his what future has in store for him. Just like Iqbal’s first nazm in his first book is ‘Himala’ and Faiz sahib’s first nazm in his collection is ‘Ye dagh dagh ujala’… Niazi’s first poem in his first collection tells us about his art. The initial lines of the poem are:
Asmaan per badlon ke qafley barhtey huay
Aur meri khirki ke neechey kaanpty paedon ke hath
[A caravan of clouds moves towards the firmament
And underneath my window, the hands of trees tremble]
Writer and journalist Anwer Sen Roy said the things that he learned by having long association with people of renown, he could not learn from books or from education. Mr Niazi was one such person from he got to learn. A week before the poet’s demise, he [Roy] had the opportunity to be with him day in and day out. The conversations that he had during those seven days was published by the BBC in the form of an interview. Mr Roy also recited his Urdu translation of one of Mr Niazi’s Punjabi poems.
Poet and Karachi Press Club President Fazil Jamili read an engaging character sketch of Mr Niazi. He said the poet was born on April 9, 1928 in Hoshiyarpur.
“Except composing poetry, he did not do anything else in life. His gait suggested as if someone was walking in a dream. When he spoke, it sounded as if someone was speaking in a dream. Niazi first fell in love at the age of 10 with a 40-year-old woman. When he was 70 years of age, he lost his heart to a 17-year-old girl. According to Niazi, love has nothing to do with age; it’s do with the heart,” he said.
Poet and novelist Syed Kashif Raza presented his observations of Mr Niazi as a painter. He said the poet was a contemporary of Faiz Ahmed Faiz, N M Rashid, Miraji and Majeed Amjad. When he began writing poetry, his objective was different from the other four.
“Niazi never tried to write a great poem (bari nazm). He did write popular poems but not large-scale ones. The reason could be traced in his connection with imagists poetry,” he said.
He said Mr Niazi wasn’t a poet but a painter. “He made images that had movement (mutaharik). His poems can also be turned into two-minute documentaries. There are a couple of dominant images in his poetry: beauty and fear. Sometimes he combines the two. For example, in his poems he sees red lips in a dark night. The red lips could be of a vamp or a beloved.”
Mr Raza also pointed out the element of light in paintings and the way Niazi uses moving light in his verses.
Arts Council President Ahmed Shah delivered the vote of thanks at the event moderated by Ambareen Hasib Amber.
Published in Dawn, April 10th, 2026