Death anniversary of Syed Zamir Jafri
May 12th,
Syed Zamir Jafri was born on 1st January, 1916 in Chak Abdul Khaliq, a village near Dina, District Jhelum. He was a legend poet who with his unique poetic diction and ideas ruled urdu literature for over 60 years. He was a learned person and trend setter using all his abilities with firm commitment which paved the way for humorous poetry in tandem with serious poetry. A true patriot who very effectively made his pen a source of preaching message of peace and love for the man kind. His writings are a valuable asset of urdu literature. A poet of excellence who made his mark in the field of urdu literature with his wit and humour. He has about 78 published books of poetry and prose representing a varied range of creative works.
Syed Zamir Jafri was a renowned humourist, columnist, broadcaster and telecaster who was well known nationally and internationally. Besides urdu, the national language of Pakistan, he wrote in Punjabi and English. In addition to original works, he also translated into urdu verse “Malay Folk Lore (Pantuns) of Malaysia, few poems from Nazar-ul-Islam and translations from the monumental Punjabi classic the “saif-ul-malook”. As a humourist, he had his stamp of his own, making him the most sought after poet in poetry recitals (Mushiara) within the country and abroad. As a Co-Editor, he is responsible for the production of the “Urdu Punch” considered to be the most sophisticated and esteemed journal of urdu Humour. After graduation from Islamia College, Lahore, he started as a journalist in Lahore but soon after joined the Indian Army War Propaganda Directorate when the Second World War started. At the Headquarters in Delhi, it had writers and intellectuals like M.D.Taseer, Majid Malik and Faiz Ahmed Faiz.
Syed Zamir Jafri was posted to the Far East. Maulana Chiragh Hassan Hasrat and N.M. Rashed were already there. He continued to serve in the Education Corps of Pakistan Army and participated in 1948 Kashmir libration and 1965 Indo-Pak war. He served in Inter services Public Relation Directorate. He retired from the Army as a Major in 1965 and thereafter was appointed the first Director Public Relations of Capital Development Authority; a body formed to look after the development of Pakistan’s newly announced capital at Islamabad. He remained on this post for over fifteen years and had a unique honour of naming the roads and residential/commercial sectors of the new Capital. Thereafter, he served on contract assignments as Deputy Director General of Pakistan National Centre in the Ministry of Information, as Advisor to the Chief Commissioner Afghan Refugees and lastly as Chief Editor in Academy of Letters.
Syed Zamir Jafri was a serious as well as a humourist poet but he emerged as the most respected and acclaimed humourist: so was he known as a prose writer and a coloumnist. He had a knack of combining serious, even grim facts with humour. He seldom used irony or burlesque or horse laughter: he was most of time at the level of pure humour, apparently non-serious, and some time nonsensical as defined in literary criticism. His poetic process can be seen at its best in his most popular collection “Ma Fiz Zamir”. This anthology presents Syed Zamir Jafri as a cultured, sophisticated humourist. He watches the reality around him amusedly. He deals with cruel, bitter and uncivilized situations and unreasonably aggressive persons. But he renders them in a manner that he emerges as a pure humourist. No where does he betray himself as a satirist or a cruel comical making fun of them. He thus controls his subjective response to maintain the level he keeps.
