Poet par excellence: Munir Niazi remembered

International conference on the poet next year

LAHORE:

Munir Niazi was a poet par excellence, World Punjabi Congress chairman Fakhar Zaman said on Thursday.

He was addressing a function organised at the Punjabi Complex to mark the poet’s birth anniversary. Zaman said Niazi was a dreamer and an idealist who was a misfit in a decadent, degenerate and stinking society. He said Niazi had distanced himself from the literary mainstream of mediocre writers and poets. Zaman said Niazi had created a separate world for himself that was fashioned from matchless aesthetics, pioneering sensibility and refreshing diction.



The WPC chairman said Niazi’s work was equally potent in Punjabi and Urdu. He said only a good human could be a poet of note. Zaman said Niazi’s credentials were impeccable in this regard. He said the poet was committed to the beauty and higher values of the nation that had been ruthlessly trampled upon by corruption, dishonesty and hypocrisy.  Zaman said a special number on Niazi had been brought out by the Pakistan Academy of Letters when he was at the helm of its affairs. He said he tended to get extremely nostalgic about the time that he had spent with the poet. Zaman announced that an international conference on Niazi would be organised on his next birthday.

Naheed Niazi said she had the good fortune of having a great human and an exceptional poet as her husband in the form of Niazi. She said she would never be able to forget the time she had spent with him.

Punjab Institute of Language Art and Culture Director Sughra Sadaf eulogised Niazi. Columnist Sofia Baidar said Niazi was extremely kind to new writers. She said she had learnt a great deal from him.

Writer Naheed Shahid said his Punjabi work was sublime. He said it was markedly different from the work of other Punjabi poets. Activist Naheed Durrani and Poet Iqbal Rahi also paid homage to the poet on the occasion.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 10^th, 2015.