QK Archives: Riaz Tasneem

Riaz Tasneem: A poet of purpose, enlightened vision

Written by Sher Alam Shinwari
Saturday, 18 March 2006

PESHAWAR: A soft spoken and simple looking smart Karachi based Pashto poet with greenish eyes, Riaz Tasneem was a born on September 3, 1968 in Peshawar Riaz Tasneem did his SSC from Government High School Akhwarwaal in 1984 and qualified his Intermediate from Islamia College, Peshawar in 1986 and Graduation from Federal Urdu Arts College, Karachi in 1995. Riaz’s forefathers had moved from Mohmand Agency, village Zanawar Cheena to Peshawar while he made his way to Karachi to find a suitable job in 1989.
The inspiration for poetry came from Diwan-e- Abdur Rahman, which he used to pick up for his pleasure reading. When Riaz read was asked to contribute his poetic piece to the college’s celebrated literary Magazine ‘Khyber’, he too composed some verses, which were published later on. Khadim Hussian a close friend of Riaz further honed his talent and introduced him to the writings of great literary giants like Ahmed Faraz, Munir Niazi, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Hamza Baba, Qalandar Momand, Ghani Khan, Ajmal Khattak and Rahmat Shah Sail. He served as Sub -editor with daily Wahdat for a year. Aasi Ashnaghari took him to Qalandar Momand‘s literary session in 1988. (I have benefited a lot from Qalandar Momand. On my occasional visit to Peshawar I would never miss his literary session. He gave us in fact a deep critical sense,” Riaz fondly remembers while talking to the Statesman. In Karachi, Riaz was one among the Pashto writers to have founded a literary organization Jaras Adabi Jarga in 1990, which would hold critical literary session on monthly basis at its office in Bolten Market. Fahim Sarhadi Late, Bacha Khan Late, Qaiser Afridi and Tahir Afridi were the prominent writers who immensely contributed to Pashto literature in Karachi. “ The Pashto literary bodies in Karachi, previously were limited only to Mushairas, Jaras Adabi Jarga introduced the tradition of critical literary session. Tahir Afridi a renowned short story writer and one of the founders of Jaras Adabi Jarga, launched Jaras-e- Pakhto a popular literary magazine in 1999, I have worked with it as Sub -editor for a long time and also contributed my articles and poetic pieces,” says Riaz.