Sagar Siddiqui

Biography Saghar Siddiqui was born in 1928 in Ambala (British India) to a well-to-do middle-class family. There are few historic records of Saghar's personal life. He rarely spoke to any one in this regard and most of what is known of him tends to be from witness accounts.

Siddiqui was the only child of his parents and spent the early years of his life in Ambala and Saharanpur. He was home tutored and received his early education from Habib Hassan, a family friend. Young Muhammad Akhtar (later known as Saghar Siddiqui) was much impressed by Habib Hassan, and he got interested in Urdu poetry because of him. Siddiqui started writing poetry as a child. He moved to Amritsar, Punjab in search of work and used to make wooden combs while writing Urdu poetry. For some time, he used Nasir Hijazi as his pen name, but later he switched to Saghar Siddiqui. This dhamaal song is very popular in Pakistan and is often sung by various singers at the country's Sufi shrines especially at Lal Shahbaz Qalandar's shrine. Saghar wrote the song's lyrics for the film Jabroo (1956), produced by Inayat Hussain Bhatti, and original music by composer Ashiq Hussain. Later, music composer Nazir Ali re-composed it for Dillan Dey Sauday (1969), sung by Noor Jehan, and made it much more popular among the public.

Julien Columeau, a French writer in Pakistan, wrote a semi-fictional Urdu novel Saghar based on Saghar Siddiqui's life.

Awards and recognition Sitara-i-Imtiaz (Star of Excellence) Award by the President of Pakistan in 2023.