Shareef Kunjahi

Sharif Kunjahi ( (Shahmukhi)) (1914 – 2007) was a leading writer and poet of Punjabi language from Pakistan.

He was among the first faculty members of the Department of Punjabi Language at the University of Punjab in the 1970s and contributed to Punjabi literature as a poet, prose writer, teacher, research scholar, linguist, lexicographer and translator.

Early life and education Sharif was born on 13 May 1914 in Kunjah, a small town of Gujrat District in Punjab. His father was a school teacher. Sharif completed his matriculation in 1930 from a school in Kunjah and higher secondary in 1933 from Government Intermediate College, Jhelum. By that time he had started writing poetry and was known as a progressive writer sympathetic to the Indian National Congress. This affiliation became a hindrance for him to get police clearance for entry-level jobs in the government service.

In 1943, he completed his Munshi Fazal and BA from Punjab University as a private student and later completed teacher's training from Lahore. He then continued teaching at various schools until he obtained the degree of MA Urdu in 1954, and of MA Persian in 1956. In 1959, he was hired as lecturer in Persian language at Government College, Campbellpur (now called Attock), Pakistan. He was transferred to Government College Jhelum from where he retired in 1973. From 1973 to 1980, he taught at the newly established Punjabi Department at the University of the Punjab, Lahore. For an up-and-coming Muslim writer of that period, especially among the early progressive writers and poets, adopting Punjabi for his creative articulation was a rare phenomenon. Lifetime Achievement Award by the World Punjabi Congress Nishan-i-Gujrat Award by the Literary Award Council of Gujrat in 1980