By Zabe Azkar Hussain
The News Friday, December 29, 2006
KARACHI: Heralded as the poet of fresh and rather mysterious images, Muneer Niazi is no more with us, but his amazing and thought-provoking poetry will never die down.
His metaphors used to make such images of words that travel far into the unseen and unknown.
Author of some 15 books — 11 Urdu and four Punjabi poetry collections — Muneer Niazi was equally popular in Pakistan and India because of his unique style of creating poetry.
According to some poets who used to visit India for meeting Indian literary circles, Niazi was regarded as a great Punjabi poet across the border.
In Pakistan, his Urdu poetry is considered to be more valuable and unique, but in India his Punjabi poetry is reckoned as more creative and unique, say writers. His collections including ‘Cheh Rangeen Darwaze’, ‘Tez Hawa Aur Phool’, ‘Dushmanon Key Darmian Shaam’, ‘Pahli Baat Hi Aakhri Thi’ and ‘Aik Doa Jo Main Bhool Gaya Tha’, have been compiled together in a main collection called ‘Kulliat’.
A number of writers, poets, intellectuals and people from different walks of life have expressed deep shock and grief over the sad demise of Niazi who was laid to rest on Wednesday in Lahore.
He was a chronic patient of asthma and died of cardiac arrest on the night between Tuesday and Wednesday at the Jinnah Hospital Lahore.
He was born on April 19, 1928 in District Hoshiyarpur in Indian Punjab. He passed matriculation from the District Sahiwal and later received education at Diyal Singh College, Lahore. He had got married twice but remained issueless.
The representatives of Arts Council, Adara-e-Roohe Adab Pakistan, Bazm-e-Ilmo Danish, National Theatre, Karachi Literary Forum and prominent personalities including Masood Hashmi, Prof Dr Zafar Iqbal, Prof Afaq Siddiqui, Shaikh Manzar Alam, Dr Khalid Imran Mathar, Prof Sehar Ansari, Rehana Roohi, Khalid Moin, Rizwan Ahmed Siddiqui, Muhammad Islmail Yousuf, Prof Auj-e-Kamal, Ismail Khaleel, Saifur Rehman Grami, Zakia Ghazal, Aneeq Ahmed, Mehmood A Khan, Seema Ghazal, Akthar Saeedi, Waris Raza, Tauqeer Chughtai, Muhammad Yaqoob Ghaznavi and Tabbasum Siddiqui have in their statements noted that Niazi was a great poet and people would never forget his unique dictions and metaphors he gave to Urdu and Punjabi poetry.
They said that Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Ahmed Nadeem Qasimi and Muneer Niazi were considered genuine assets to the world of poetry in Pakistan.
According to a report, Muneer Niazi had witnessed a warm welcome when he visited the federal capital only a few days before his death.
The literary circle there sat for hours listening to the poet who narrated interesting episodes of his life to the audience sitting in the lush green lawns of a local guest house. Although for him Islamabad was a retreat, he was a treat for the art lovers of Islamabad, the report noted.
A Pathan by birth and a poet by destiny, the frail Muneer Niazi recited poetry on the request of the audience amidst great applause. “How I became a poet I do not know,” he confessed while answering questions on poetry, love and the difference between Ishq and Junoon.
