Jawayd Anwar

• Born — 18 April 1959 • Birthplace — Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan • Died — 25 November 2011 • Place of death — Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan • Occupation — * Poet • doctor • psychiatrist • Period — 1991–2011 • Genre — * Nazms • ghazals • Children — 4 • Education — * Punjab Medical College • Oriental College • Notable Works — Shahr Mayn Sham • Language — Urdu • Movement — Halqa-e Arbab-e Zauq • Name — Jawayd Anwar

Jawayd Anwar was born on 18 April 1959 in the Sant Nagar suburb of Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. The eldest member of a Bhatti family that emigrated from eastern Punjab of British India, he spent most of his childhood in Shahinabad, Sargodha. His father, Anwar Ali Bhatti, belonged to the city of Amritsar and worked as a civil servant in the Punjab Irrigation Department whereas Jawayd's mother, Nasir Akhtar, was a native of Jalandhar. His grandfather, Chaudhry Zahuruddin Bhatti, was a local zamindar who had migrated to Pakistan in the wake of the partition of India in 1947. Anwar attended Government Primary School in southern Sargodha and later enrolled at the Punjab Medical College in Faisalabad and also studied at the Oriental College in Lahore. After completing his MBBS, Anwar served at the Lahore General Hospital and later at the Allama Iqbal Medical College. Anwar was also a qualified psychiatrist. Anwar was fluent in at least four languages, Urdu, Punjabi, English and German, and also had a working knowledge of Persian.

During his time in Sargodha, Anwar had become associates with several poetic figures such as the likes of Khurshid Rizvi, Ghulam-us-Saqlain Naqvi and Wazir Agha. It was here from where Anwar became fond of Urdu poetry and actively began writing poems in his teenage. In an interview in the 1980s, Anwar said that he may have begun writing poetry when he was in grade nine or ten. • Illustration — Iftikhar Arif (left), Mohammad Hameed Shahid (centre) and Jawayd Anwar (right) in Islamabad on 21 November 2011; four days before Anwar's death While on a short return to Pakistan, Anwar spent a few days at a mushaira with poets in Islamabad and died of a sudden heart attack in Lahore on 25 November 2011. One of his last poems Agr Apnay Betay Ko Tum Nay Usama Kaha ("if you named your son Usama") became a topic of discussion for its style among intellectuals and was considered innovative in modern Urdu literature. Members of the Urdu literary community expressed condolences at his demise and his funeral prayers were held at the EME Mosque. Days following his demise, Urdu literary critic Mansoor Afaq dedicated a short poem to Anwar titled Nazm Marr Gai Hai ("poem has died").