Aftab Iqbal Shamim

Aftab Iqbal Shamim (Urdu: آفتاب اقبال شمیم ‎) (born 16 February 1936 in Jhelum, Pakistan) is an Urdu language poet.^[1] Aftab Iqbal Shamim had served as a professor of English literature and language for 33 years at Gordon College Rawalpindi Pakistan.Meanwhile, he also taught Urdu language and literature to Chinese students at Beijing University for 12 years. His Chinese students have and had served in various high positions such as ambassadors, cultural secretaries, counsellors and high government officials in China and Pakistan.

He started writing Urdu poetry at a very early stage of his life. His poetry has been published with continuity in reputed literary magazines over the years. He has given a new trend to the Urdu poetry. He has used different literary techniques such as associations of ideas, functional use of metaphor and imagery, diverse way of using meaningful personal and impersonal symbolism. He is a very individual and creative in his diction coining words and new phrases. He has literally treated Urdu poem in different way and has given it a new sort of contemporary sensibility. He has tried to capture creatively the human miseries and actual human situation prevailing in the world of modern man. His score of multiple themes in his poems show his grasp of contemporary problems faced by man. His poetry falls in-line with the traditional continuum of our legend poets like Allama Iqbal, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, N.M Rashid and Majeed Amjad. He blends objectivity with subjectivity. His idealistic vision craves for a better future world.

He is an author of five books. Four of them are written in free verse poetry named Farda Niyad, Zaid se Muqalama (a collection of long poems), Gum Samunder and Mein Nazm Likhta Houn. While his last and latest book Saya Naward is a collection of ghazals.

His book Mein Nazm Likhta Houn was given Allama Iqbal Award by Academy of Letters,Islamabad, Pakistan, and was declared as the best book of the year of its publication. For his literary contribution in Urdu literature he has been awarded ‘Pride of performance’ by the government of Pakistan in 2005. His selected poems have been translated in English language are currently under publication.

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