Jazib Qureshi

Karachi's poet-critic — pray for rain, but look at your own broken house first. Jazib Qureshi (1940–2021), born on 3 August 1940 in Lucknow, was a Pakistani Urdu poet, writer and critic whose work spanned more than fifty years. His father died when he was six, and the family moved to Lahore in 1950, where the young Jazib worked in the press and began to write poetry, guided by Shakir Dehlavi of the Dagh school. His first public reading was at the Shahi Qila, in a gathering chaired by Ehsan Danish. In 1962 he moved to Karachi, worked in magazines and newspapers, took a master's degree from the University of Karachi, and taught in government schools and colleges for thirty-five years. Eight collections of his poetry appeared, along with half a dozen books of criticism — among them Pehchaan, Shinasai and Takhleeqi Awaaz — and an autobiography; his studies of Ghalib, Iqbal and other masters were widely read, and younger writers admired him as a critic who wrote about the living. He travelled widely to read his poetry, visiting thirty-five cities in the United States and returning often to the Gulf. He died in Karachi on 21 June 2021, aged 80, and is buried in the Azizabad graveyard.