(Pakistan News and Features Services)
Eminent writer, scholar and critic, Prof Dr Farman
Fatehpuri, passed away in Karachi on August 3. His funeral prayer was offered
at Masjid Khulafa-e-Rashideen, 13-D/1, Gulshan-e-Iqbal, and he was laid to rest
at the Karachi University's graveyard.
He has left behind two sons and four daughters to mourn his
death. One of his sons, Engr Syed Abrar Ali, is presently the Registrar at the
Sir Syed University of Engineering & Technology (SSUET), Karachi.
The SSUET Chancellor, Engr Mohammad Adil Usman, and Vice-Chancellor,
Prof Dr Jawaid H Rizvi, have expressed their grief and sorrow over the sad
demise of Prof Dr Farman Fatehpuri.
In their condolence messages, they paid rich tribute to the
great writer for his contribution toward the promotion of the cause of Urdu,
noting that the literary world has lost one of its most versatile
personalities. They prayed to Allah to rest the departed soul in eternal peace
and grant fortitude to bereaved family to bear the irreparable loss.
Prof Dr Farman Fatehpuri was acclaimed as an outstanding
Urdu linguist, researcher, writer, critic and scholar. He was widely regarded
as the supreme authority on life and work of Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib, the
greatest-ever Urdu poet. He is credited to have penned more than 300 scholarly
articles, 600 book reviews and 400 editorials of Nigar. He
received Sitara-e-Imtiaz, for
his literary accomplishments, from the Government of Pakistan in 1985.
He was born on January 26, 1926 in Fatehpur, Uttar Pardesh,
India. He did his matriculation in his Fatehpur, intermediate from Allahabad
and graduation from the Agra University. He had migrated to Pakistan in 1950
and relocated in Karachi.
He became the first Pakistani to earn the prestigious degree
of Doctorate in Literature in 1974. He remained associated with the University
of Karachi for more than three decades, having produced numerous PhDs and
researchers. He was then appointed as the Chief Editor and Secretary of the
Urdu Dictionary Board.
He also served as a member of the Civil Services Board of
the Government of Sindh. He became the editor of the monthly publication, Nigar
the oldest Urdu literary journal, founded by Farman's mentor, Allama Niaz
Fatehpuri.
He had special association with the legendary Sir Syed Ahmed
Khan and hardly ever missed a function organised in his memory by the SSUET.
