Dareechah-e-Nigaarish



Mustafa Zaidi (1930 - 1970) was a courageous romantic who wrote Urdu poems but especially Urdu ghazals which had a modern sensibility. His warm style had a characteristic candidness and a wonderful openness that invited the reader into his world.

He was a total misfit in the rigidly conservative, narrow mindedly religious Pakistani society. He is alleged to have been murdered due to his extra-marital affair with a beautiful young married socialite Shahnaz Gull . . . and the scene of the crime was allegedly made to look like he committed suicide . . . Mustafa Zaidi was 40 years old at the time of his untimely death in Karachi on 12th October, 1970.

Mustafa Zaidi was the Hamlet of modern Urdu poetry . . . neglected by mainstream literary society and a rebel at heart . . . he had so much to give in the form of immortal poetry to the people of Pakistan (whom he served as a Deputy Commissioner who refused to take bribes) and to Urdu language lovers all over the world . . .

The renowned and leading modern Urdu poet Majeed Amjad wrote a touching poem when he heard the news of Mustafa Zaidi's death.  Mirza Hamid Baig wrote a book entitled "Mustafa Zaidi Kee Kahani." Lahore's avant-garde publishing firm "Mavra" run by Khalid Sharif published the collected poems of Mustafa Zaidi in an anthology entitled "Kulliyat e Mustafa Zaidi" in 1980.