Introduction

Qazi Abdul Jaleel (Sindhi

Sindhi language

Sindhi is the language of the Sindh region of Pakistan that is spoken by the Sindhi people. In India, it is among 22 constitutionally recognized languages, where Sindhis are a sizeable minority. It is spoken by 53,410,910 people in Pakistan, according to the national government's Statistics Division...

: قاضي عبدالجليل) (born 1936 in Rohri

Rohri

Rohri is a town of Sukkur District, Sindh province, Pakistan. It is located at 27°40'60N 68°54'0E, on the east bank of the Indus River. Rohri town is the administrative headquarters of Rohri Taluka, a tehsil of Sukkur District with which it forms a metropolitan area...

), popularly known as Amar Jaleel, is a Sindhi

Sindhi people

Sindhis are a Sindhi speaking socio-ethnic group of people originating from Sindh, a province Formerly of British India, now in Pakistan. Today Sindhis that live in Pakistan belong to various religious denominations including Islam, Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, Sikhism and Christianity...

 fiction writer and a columnist

Columnist

A columnist is a journalist who writes for publication in a series, creating an article that usually offers commentary and opinions. Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and other publications, including blogs....

 whose columns appears in various Sindhi

Sindhi language

Sindhi is the language of the Sindh region of Pakistan that is spoken by the Sindhi people. In India, it is among 22 constitutionally recognized languages, where Sindhis are a sizeable minority. It is spoken by 53,410,910 people in Pakistan, according to the national government's Statistics Division...

, Urdu

Urdu

Urdu is a register of the Hindustani language that is identified with Muslims in South Asia. It belongs to the Indo-European family. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also widely spoken in some regions of India, where it is one of the 22 scheduled languages and an...

 and English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

-language dailies of Pakistan. He frequently plays with a dark sense of humor in his writings. Has authored 20 books. Recipient of National Award, Pride of Performance (Pakistan), and Akhal Bharat Sindhi Sahat Sabha National Award (India). Life Fellow, Pakistan Academy of Letters. Writes since 1955.

Early life

Jaleel started writing stories when he was 10 years old. He played for his NJV School and also featured briefly in first class cricket as wicketkeeper-batsman.

Professional career

Amar Jaleel started his career at Radio Pakistan, Karachi

Karachi

Karachi is the largest city, main seaport and the main financial centre of Pakistan, as well as the capital of the province of Sindh. The city has an estimated population of 13 to 15 million, while the total metropolitan area has a population of over 18 million...

 before being transferred to Islamabad

Islamabad

Islamabad is the capital of Pakistan and the tenth largest city in the country. Located within the Islamabad Capital Territory , the population of the city has grown from 100,000 in 1951 to 1.7 million in 2011...

, where he worked in different positions at radio and educational institutions. Now retired, Jaleel currently resides in Karachi, Sindh, where he spends his leisure time writing articles for various Pakistan

Pakistan

Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

 newspapers, and is known as a popular columnist for Dawn

Dawn (newspaper)

Dawn is Pakistan's oldest and most widely read English-language newspaper. One of the country's two largest English-language dailies, it is the flagship of the Dawn Group of Newspapers, published by Pakistan Herald Publications, which also owns the Herald, a magazine, the evening paper The Star and...

and The Nation.

Thinking

As a political analyst he has repeatedly returned to one theme: why partition

Partition of India

The Partition of India was the partition of British India on the basis of religious demographics that led to the creation of the sovereign states of the Dominion of Pakistan and the Union of India on 14 and 15...

 was wrong. Amar Jaleel is a prominent polemicist against the All-India Muslim League.

His articles have found publication in Pakistan's leading newspapers, including the Dawn, which has historical foundations in the Pakistan Movement itself.

Books

He has written hundreds of short stories in Sindhi

Sindhi language

Sindhi is the language of the Sindh region of Pakistan that is spoken by the Sindhi people. In India, it is among 22 constitutionally recognized languages, where Sindhis are a sizeable minority. It is spoken by 53,410,910 people in Pakistan, according to the national government's Statistics Division...

; he has also written one novel in Sindhi titled Naith Gongey Ghalahyo نيٺ گونگهي ڳالهايو ("Thus Dumb Spoke").
Some of Amar Jaleel's best known books are:

• Sindhu Muhinje Saah Mein سنڌو منهنجي ساھ ۾ ("Sindhu in my Soul") - The most dominating character in Amar Jaleel's stories is the Sindhu (his beloved, his listener).
• Dil Jee Duniya دل جي دنيا ("The World of Heart") - A TV show based on this story was broadcast on PTV
  Pakistan Television Corporation
  The Pakistan Television Corporation is Pakistan's national television broadcaster. The first live transmission of PTV began on November 26, 1964, in Lahore...
  
  .
• Jadanh Maa'n Na Hoondus جڏهن مان نه هوندس ("When I Won't Be There") - Banned when first published, this book is about a man in jail and his thoughts. It was banned because it was published the same year that Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was jailed and executed, and so the government thought it was about him.
• Tareekh Jo Kafan تاريخ جو ڪفن ("History's Coffin")
• Munhinjo Dus Aasman Khan Puchho منهنجو ڏس آسمان کان پڇو ("The Sky Would Give My Whereabouts")
• Tiyoon Wujood ٽيون وجود ("Third-Time Existence")
• "Naith Gongey Ghalahyo" نيٺ گونگهي ڳالهايو (Thus Dumb Spoke)
• "Raani Kot jo Khazano" رڻي ڪوٽ جو خزانو (The Treasure of Rani Kot)
• Wichaar, a web portal, has printed a book of Amar Jaleel's selected stories in Punjabi translation. The book's title is Amar Kahanian.

Articles & essays

• To Define Sufism
• A Professor with a Fake Degree
• Wither Sufism
• Enigmatic History in a Nutshell
• Betrayed
• Antithesis of Sufism
• From Nowhere to Enerywhere
• The Evil Within Uus

See also

• Sindhi literature
  Sindhi literature
  Sindhi literature is very rich and is generally considered to be among the world's oldest. Its writers have contributed extensively in various forms of literature both in poetry and prose.- Sufi literature and poetry :...
  
  
• Urdu Columns of Amar Jalil

Amar Jaleel's columns in Dawn Magazine 2007

• http://www.dawn.com/weekly/dmag/archive/070107/dmag2.htm
• http://www.dawn.com/weekly/dmag/archive/070114/dmag2.htm
• http://www.dawn.com/weekly/dmag/archive/070121/dmag3.htm
• http://www.dawn.com/weekly/dmag/archive/070128/dmag2.htm
• http://www.dawn.com/weekly/dmag/archive/070204/dmag4.htm
• http://www.dawn.com/weekly/dmag/archive/070211/dmag2.htm
• http://www.dawn.com/weekly/dmag/archive/070218/dmag2.htm