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Muhammad Hanif Saqi
Muhammad Hanif Saqi(محمد حنيف ساقى) in Urdu.

Muhammad Hanif Saqi www.facebook.com/MuhammadHanifSaqi is well known as a folk poet and an orator and is a stamp vender by profession. He is publically known as an AWAMI SHAYER "عوامى شاعر"(public poet).

Early life:

His real name is Muhammad Hanif and is called Muhammad Hanif Saqi or Hanif Saqi at most. “Saqi” is his pen name. He was born on 04 September 1954 in Hafizabad (حافظﺁباد), Pakistan after his parents migrated from Kashmir. His family settled down in Hafizabad, a small village-like city in the west of Gujranwala. He is the 3rd one among his parents’ five children (4 brothers n 1 sister).

Professional career:

Due to financial reasons he could not continue his studies and left school for some job. After spending some time in odd jobs, he started tailoring. He kept on working as a tailor for many years, some within Pakistan, some abroad. But in spite of his hard work, he could not change the fortune of his family. He came back to the country and again tried here in the same profession but in vain. Then he could get a licence for the sale of official stamp papers in his own city, Hafizabad. So he became a stamp vender (اشثام فروش) and is still doing the same since years. In this profession he could earn a good living and a good name as well.

Literary career:

His poetic career started as early as he started his professional career as a tailor. During this his father got ill and he went to Lahore for his treatment where he could enjoy the company of Saghar Siddiqui (ساغر صديقى), a famous poet. He got his pen name “Saqi” from Saghar Siddiqui during his stay with him in Anarkali, Lahore. He took part in many poetic gatherings as a poet during his stay in Dubai and some other Arab States. On his way back to home, he started taking part in local poetic gatherings and got fame soon. In the course of history, during more than a decade, he attended many poetic ceremonies in different cities of Punjab. Due to his loud, clear and impressive tone, he is also known as an orator of a good caliber in the city. This all earned him a good name in his own city as well as in other areas of the province. He writes basically in Punjabi but in Urdu as well. His first book has been published so far named “Soch Di Sooli”. Some of his poems are famous since years because of their appealing topics and impressive word selection. These poems are dedicated to the poor ones and address the problems of every poor fellow of the society. Some of his famous poems are:

Cassatte(كيسث):

Addressing an old tradition of Sub-continent in which people used to communicate with their loved ones abroad, not via letters but cassettes, recording their true emotions in the audio cassettes.

Rano Da Veya(رانو دا وياه) "marriage of Rano, a girl":

Depicting the pure emotions of a daughter of a poor man who cannot afford much to give his daughter at her marriage and sometimes, if her fiancé becomes rich, increasing his demands for dowry, he denies to marry his fiancée because she is the poor daughter of a poor man.

Nashei (نشئ) "drugs-addict":

A universal theme of a drugs-addict who sells everything for drugs, in our part of the world, sells even his daughter or wife for a small packet of drugs.

Harh (flood):

A poem about flood and its implications upon different segments of society, especially the poor ones.

Hazrat-E-Ishq (حضرت عشق) "The LOver":

An artistic depiction of a marvelous poem about Ishq (superlative form of love) in which he has used many references of lovers from history and depicted the famous love stories of soil of Sub-continent (Ishq-e-Majazi) and Islamic history (Ishq-e-Haqiqi), at most one story in each couplet.

Achievements:

He has been awarded many awards like Baba Waris Shah award, Baba Farid Ganj Shakar award, Punjabi Adbi award (Quwait), Saghar Siddiqui award (several times), Bhutto Shaheed award. Besides this, he has got a lot many awards for different local, national and international poetic performances.

Family: Muhammad Hanif Saqi has been blessed with 6 sons and 2 daughters. He struggled hard to give his family a better living and also provided them good education. One of his sons is serving as a lecturer of English in Govt. Degree College, Hafizabad. One has completed his MA English and still another is a law graduate while others too are at different levels of their educational careers.