MFUA names Urdu literary award winners

Zafar Iqbal, Dr Saidi Sironji to be presented trophy, cash prizes later this year Eminent Pakistani and Indian writers/poets Zafar Iqbal and Dr Saifi Sironji have joined the list of elite literary figures honoured by Qatar's Majlis-e-Frogh-e-Urdu Adab.

The two have been named this year's winners of the prestigious Urdu award instituted by the literary organisation in 1996.The award will be presented to the winners at a function in October or November this year, if circumstances allow and subject to approval of the Ministry of Culture.The award carries a cash prize of Rs150,000 and an award trophy for each winner.It is given every year to a fiction writer and/ or research scholar and/ or critic, one each from Pakistan and India, for their significant contribution towards the promotion of Urdu language and literature.Mohamed Atiq, chairman of the Majlis, said the award winners were unanimously chosen by two independent juries, comprising reputed Urdu scholars in New Delhi and Lahore, earlier this month. The Indian jury comprised Padma Bhushan winner and former chairman of the Sahitya Academy, India, and an outstanding critic, researcher and intellectual, Prof Dr Gopi Chand Narang as chairman, with Prof Shafey Kidwai, Sheen Kaaf Nizam, Dr Abdul Naseeb Khan and Mehar Mansoor as members.The Pakistani panel was headed by renowned scholar, critic, researcher and poet, Sitara e Imtiaz, Prof Dr Khurshid Rizvi with Prof Fateh Mohamed Malik, Prof Dr Tehsin Firaqi and Prof Dr Zahid Munir Amir as members.Renowned writer, poet, attorney and journalist, Zafar Iqbal was born on September 27, 1930, to an Arain family in Bhawalnagar, Punjab, where his maternal grandparents lived.He passed his matric examination from MB High School in Okara, Punjab, and later passed his Intermediate and BA examinations from the famous Government College, Lahore. His teachers at Government College, Lahore, included prominent personalities like Soofi Tabassum, K K Aziz, Qayyum Nazar and Mirza Maqbool Badkhshani.He passed his LLB examination from the Punjab Law College, Lahore and then became a lawyer by profession. He did his law practice in Okara for 40 years and has been living in Lahore now for many years. Zafar Iqbal has been a poet for about 75 years as well as a writer for half a century. He started his career as a journalist with writing in the weekly Dhanak in 1974. Five volumes of his collections of poetry, titled as Ab Tak have been published and the sixth volume is under print. The first volume of his critical and research articles comprising 512 pages, titled La Tanqeed has been published. The second volume, comprising the same number of pages, is under print. Six volumes of his columns written in reputed newspapers of Pakistan, have been printed. Prominent among these is Khisht e Zaafran and Dal Daliya. He has been writing columns regularly for well known daily newspapers — Jang, Nawai Waqt, Mashreq, Pakistan and Khabrain.He has been writing his daily column under the title of Dal Dalya in daily Duniya for the last few years.Zafar Iqbal's poetry is mainly in the ghazal genre. The diction of his ghazal, entirely different from traditional Urdu poetry, distinguishes him from the rest. In contrast to classical poets, Zafar's poetry portrays love as scientific and physical rather than supernatural. Dr Tabassum Kashmiri called him ‘Literature's renegade of the 20th Century’. Former Punjab chief minister Hanif Ramey, who was also a writer and a well-known critic, called him a poet of a new tone and new concepts. Many literary personalities have called him a ‘living legend.’Zafar Iqbal has a son named Aftab Iqbal who is a newspaper columnist and a reputed TV anchor in Pakistan.Zafar Iqbal has received the Pride of Performance Award in 1999 and Hilal-e-Pakistan Award in 2014 from the president of Pakistan.Dr Saifi Sironji was born in a village, Mahua Kheda, Sironj, district Vidisha (Madhya Pradesh) on April 28, 1952. He started his career as a Bidi labourer. He did his MA and PhD from Barkatullah University, Bhopal. For the last 50 years, he has been tirelessly dedicated to the cause of development, advancement and refinement of the national cultural and literary scene. He is an active literary journalist.Besides being a poet, critic, novelist and humourist, he writes short stories and travelogues. He launched the quarterly Intisab Aalami in 1982 from Sironj. It is the longest-surviving Urdu journal of Madhya Pradesh that has turned the state into a vibrant centre for Urdu journalism and publications. It has also published 25 special volumes in the last 40 years. Apart from it, Saifi has also been publishing the monthly Aalami Zaban for the last six years from Intisab Publications, He has participated in different national and international mushairas, Urdu conferences, radio and TV programmes, intellectual and cultural activities. Moreover, 53 books on research, criticism, short stories, novels and travelogues, eight poetry collections, and nine books on Shakhsiyat aur Fun of Dr Saifi have been published. His prominent books include Yeh to sachcha qissa hai, Sironj se London tak, Urdu afsana taraqqi pasand tehreek ke baad, Nai ghazal nae imkanaat, Ikkeesveen sadi, Urdu novel, Urdu nazm ka irtiqai safar, and Ek behar sau ghazlein. A scholar has done a PhD on literary services of Intisab Aalami from Indore University (MP). Two MPhils have been done on the Adabi Khidma'at of Dr Saifi, one from Rajasthan University (Jaipur) and the other from Vikram University (Ujjain). His prose and poetry have also been included in the Indo-Pak curriculum, mainly in the syllabus of the MP Board and Peshawar University. His selected writings have been translated into English, Hindi, Gujrati, Malayalam and other Indian languages.