Chandigarh, August 31, 2016
Known Urdu writer, poet, short-story writer and dramatist and Kashmiri Lal Zakir passed away due to prolonged illness at government Medical College Hospital, Sector 32, Chandigarh, on Wednesday. He was 97. He is survised by three daughters and a son.
Zakir started his literary career with a ghazal, published in a literary magazine in Lahore, in 1940s. He served with the Punjab education department in British India. Zakir was also associated with Haryana Urdu Academy as its chairman and wrote in Hindi too .
A 2006 recipient of the 4th highest civilian honour, Padma Shri, Zakir also wrote Teen Chehre Ek Saval (Three faces, one question), a ghazal anthology, a novel titled Ab Mujhey Sone Do (Let me sleep now), and Aey Mao Behno Betiyo (O, mothers, sisters, daughters), a collection of articles.
One of his most popular couplets is: ‘Meray badnaam afsanay bahot hain; magar unkay bhi deewanay bahot hain’