The Pakistan Academy of Letters (PAL) organised a condolence reference for renowned Urdu poet and columnist Khalid Ahmad here on Friday.
Speaking at the reference, Prof. Dr Fateh Muhammad Malik, a veteran literary critic and intellectual, said that Ahmad reminded him of the great poet Ahmed Nadeem Qasmi because of Ahmad’s regular contributions for Qasmi’s literary journal “Funoon”.
“Khalid Ahmad was a proud gem of Ahmed Nadeem Qasmi’s school of thought,” Malik said. “He is the representative poet of the generation of poets that succeeded Qasmi.”
Ahmad, 70, died in Lahore on March 19. He was diagnosed with lung cancer towards the end of 2012.
Born in Lucknow in 1943, Ahmad was the youngest brother of famous Urdu fiction writers Khadija Masoor and Hajra Masroor. Ahmad published five collections of poetry during his life including “Tashbeeb” and “Daraz Palkoun Kay Saey”. He was awarded the Pride of Performance for his contribution to literature in March 2011.
Malik said that he remembered Ahmad to be pleasant and cheerful even when he was passing through tough financial times in his life.
Ahmad also wrote plays, songs and columns for newspapers. Malik said Ahmad’s columns should be published in a book form, because the strength of Ahmad’s prose and sense of humour in his writing will be great additions to Urdu literature.
Haleem Qureshi, a senior poet and old friend of Ahmad, said that the writer was a free man and his freedom was evident in his poetry.
“Khalid Ahmad was not bogged down with any ideological oppression,” Qureshi said.
He said that Ahmad was so fond of literary gatherings that once he even insisted that poets gathered from different parts of Pakistan for a mushaira in Wah to sleep on the stage just so they could get more time to chat.
Chairman PAL Abdul Hameed said that the late poet absorbed the complete essence of Punjabi Sufi poetry and transferred it to his Urdu works. Other speakers said that Ahmad always encouraged young poets and writers.
Towards the end of the reference, some of the participants expressed their dismay that Jalil Aali and Prof Yusuf Hassan, who were extremely close friends of Ahmad, were not invited to speak at the reference.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 30th, 2013.