Mumtaz Mufti being remembered on his 24th death anniversary

Distinguished literary figure in Urdu literature Mumtaz Mufti is being remembered today on his 24^th death anniversary.

Mumtaz Mufti was born on September 11, 1905 in Batala, Punjab (now in India).

He became a civil servant under British rule and started career as a school teacher.

Soon after partition, he migrated to Pakistan with his family.

Mumtaz Mufti started writing Urdu short stories while working as a school teacher before partition.

In the beginning of his literary career, he was considered a non-conformist writer having liberal views, who appeared influenced by Freud.

His transformation from Liberalism to Sufism was due to his inspiration from Qudrat Ullah Shahab.

All the same, he did manage to retain his individual accent and wrote on subjects which were frowned upon by the conservative elements in society.

The two phases of his life are witnessed by his autobiographies, ‘Ali Pur Ka Aeeli’ and ‘Alakh Nagri’.

According to forewords mentioned in his later autobiography, ‘Ali Pur Ka Aeeli’ is an account of a lover who challenged the social taboos of his times, and ‘Alakh Nagri’ is an account of an acolyte who greatly influenced by the mysticism of Qudrat Ullah Shahab.

In 1986 he received Sitara-e-Imtiaz and in 1989 he received Munshi Premchand Award. He died on October 27, 1995.