Biography of Ashfaq Ahmed

Born: 22-Aug-1925

Died: 7-Sep-2004

From: Lahore Pakitan

Ashfaq Ahmed was a writer, playwright, broadcaster, intellectual and spiritualist. Ashfaq Ahmed authored more than twenty books in Urdu. His works included novels, short stories and plays for television and radio.

He was awarded President’s Pride of Performance and Sitara-i-Imtiaz for meritorious services in the field of literature and broadcasting.

Ahmed was born in Firozpur, British India, on 22 August 1925. He obtained his early education in his native district of Muktsar. Shortly before independence in 1947, he migrated to Pakistan and settled in Lahore, Punjab.  He completed his Masters in Urdu literature from Government College Lahore. Bano Qudsia, his wife and companion in Urdu literary circles, was his classmate at Government College.

After Partition, when Ashfaq Ahmed arrived at the Walton refugee camp with millions of other migrants, he used to make announcements on a megaphone around the clock. Later, he got a job in Radio Azad Kashmir, which was established on a truck that used to drive around in various parts of Kashmir. He then got lectureship at Dayal Singh College, Lahore for two years. Whereafter, he went to Rome to join Radio Rome as an Urdu newscaster.  He also used to teach Urdu at Rome university. 

During his stay in Europe, he received diplomas in the Italian and French languages from the University of Rome and University of Grenoble, France. He also earned a special training diploma in radio broadcasting from New York University.

He started writing stories in his childhood, which were published in Phool magazine. After returning to Pakistan from Europe, he took out his own monthly literary magazine, Dastaango , and joined Radio Pakistan as a script writer. He was made editor of the popular Urdu weekly, Lail-o-Nahar, in place of famous poet Sufi Ghulam Mustafa Tabassum by the Government of Pakistan.

In 1962, Ashfaq Ahmed started his popular radio program, Talqeen Shah which made him immensely popular among the people in towns and villages. He was appointed director of the Markazi Urdu Board in 1966, which was later renamed as Urdu Science Board, a post he held for 29 years. He remained with the board until 1979. He also served as adviser in the Education Ministry during Zia-ul-Haq's regime. In the 60s, he produced a feature film, Dhoop aur Saie , which was not very successful at the box office.

Besides his personality as a great author of impressive and laudable books, Ashfaq Ahmed, in his later years of life, was greatly inclined towards Sufism. His close association with Qudrat Ullah Shahab and Mumtaz Mufti was also attributed for this tendency. He used to appear in a get together with his fans in PTV program Baittakh and Zaviya where he gave swift but satisfying responses to each and every question posed by the youth audience.

On 7 September 2004, Ashfaq Ahmed died of pancreatic cancer. He was laid to rest in a Model Town, Lahore.