Mukhtar Masood


Mukhtar Masood was a renowned Pakistani Urdu writer and bureaucrat.

Early life and career

Born in Sialkot, Punjab, British India on 15 December 1926, to Shaikh Ataullah, a well-known literary scholar and professor of economics at the Aligarh Muslim University originally from Jalalpur Jattan in the Gujrat district of Punjab, Masood was a graduate of the AMU as well. He migrated to Pakistan after partition of India. In 1949, he passed Central Superior Services examination and went on to serve at different important positions such as commissioner and federal secretary.
He wrote three books – Awaz-e-Dost, Safer Naseeb, Loh-e-Ayyam – all of which are highly regarded in literary circles of Pakistan for their elegant prose and immaculate style. His last book was Harf-i-shouq that was published in July 2017.
To honor his contributions to Pakistani literature, he was awarded Sitara-i-Imtiaz.
He died in Lahore on 15 April 2017.

Books by him