ISLAMABAD: The 40th death anniversary of prominent Urdu poet Sufi Ghulam Mustafa Tabassum being observed on Friday.
Sufi Tabassum was born in Amritsar on 4 August 1899 and died on 7 February 1978. He joined the Central Training College Lahore as a Lecturer in 1927.
Sufi Tabassum joined Government College, Lahore in 1931, and retired as Head of the Persian Department in 1954.
He served as a teacher for three generations of students, including Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Noon Meem Rashid and Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi, who shortly became well-known poets. He formed the Iranian Cultural Centre in 1955 after retirement.
Sufi Tabassum handed over the Iranian Cultural Centre to the Iranian Government in 1958 after serving as its Director for three years.
Later he connected the weekly Magazine called Lail-o-Nahar as its editor in 1958. He joined Radio Pakistan as a script advisor. He famed himself as a broadcaster and commentator of literary subjects.
Afterward, he became Chairman of the Pakistan Arts Council, Lahore, and Vice-Chairman of Iqbal academy.
He worked diligently for both the organizations, building for the first time a magnificent building to mature into a national institution.
While for the latter he laboured obstinately to organize the Iqbal centenary celebrations and to get extensive research done on all aspects of the great poet’s life.
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