An evening with Fakhar Zaman

LAHORE

The Punjab Academy of Letters organised a special evening with Fakhar Zaman.  The speakers included Justice Syed Afzal Haider, Dr. Sughra Sadaf, Asim Butt and Tariq Khursheed. Fakhar Zaman narrated different aspects of his life, literary, political, cultural and Punjabi language movement. He said that he had a penchant for writing from college days. He started with Urdu poetry and short stories during his college days. Later, he also started writing in Punjabi on the insistence of a radio producer for writing a Punjabi play. His first book was of Punjabi poetry followed by novels.

In 1978, five of his books were banned by the Zia military regime and after litigation of 18 years the ban was lifted by the Lahore High Court. He said he had authored around forty books in Punjabi, Urdu and English.

He has received prestigious awards of Hilal-e-Imtiaz and Sitara-e-Imtiaz from the Pakistan government, Shiromani Sahtik Award from the Indian Punjab government and many other international awards from Canada, Denmark and UK.