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KARACHI: Eminent poet and columnist Jamiluddin Aali, who passed away on Nov 23, was laid to rest in the Bizerta Lines graveyard next to Gora Qabristan on Tuesday evening. His Namaz-i-janazah was held at Masjid-i-Tooba.

Hundreds of the late poet’s admirers from different walks of life attended the funeral.

There was a big number of poets and writers — including Pirzada Qasim, Sahar Ansari, Anwar Shaoor and Mazhar Jameel — political figures and businessmen who offered the funeral prayers. They also extended their condolences to Aaliji’s family members.

Speaking to Dawn about the poet’s literary achievements, Prof Sahar Ansari said in 1950-51 he started writing a poem titled Insaan. With the passage of time, the poem assumed epic proportions entailing philosophical and scientific subjects. He was of the view that Aaliji was perhaps the only Urdu poet who had written on futurism prolifically. Apart from that, he touched upon Stephen Hawking’s theory of singularity, which was a rare feat, he said.

Anwar Shaoor said he was a multifaceted person, which could be gauged from his writings. He was a poet, wrote a column and penned many patriotic songs, he said. However, he pointed out, Aaliji’s most important achievement was his struggle, and taking part in the movement, for making Urdu the national language. The younger generation should take a leaf out of his book and resume work on it from where the poet had left off, he added.

Published in Dawn, November 25th, 2015