Zahida Hina

Zahida Hina (born 1946) is a noted Urdu columnist, essayist, short story writer, novelist and dramatist from Pakistan.

Life

Zahida was born on October 5, 1946 in the Sasaram town of Bihar, India. After the partition of India, her father, Muhammad Abul Khair, emigrated to Pakistan and settled in Karachi, where Zahida was brought up and educated. She wrote her first story when she was nine years old. She graduated from University of Karachi, and her first essay was published in the monthly Insha in 1962. She chose journalism as a career in mid 60s. In 1970, she married the well-known poet Jon Elia. Zahida Hina was associated with the daily Jang from 1988 until 2005, when she moved to the Daily Express, Pakistan. She now lives in Karachi.zahida hina also worked in Radio Pakistan, BBC Urdu and Voice of America.
Since 2006, she writes a weekly column Pakistan Diary in Rasrang, Sunday magazine of India’s largest read Hindi newspaper Dainik Bhaskar. This column is immensely popular in India.

Work

Zahida Hina has written more than two thousand journalistic articles.
Many of her short stories have been translated into English, Bengali,

Hindi and Marathi. Some of her important titles include:
Qaidi sans leta hai (collection of short stories)
Rah main ajal hai (collection of short stories)
Na junoon raha na pari rahi (collection of short stories)
Dard ka Shajar (Novel)
Dard-e-Ashob (Novel)
Zard Paton ka ban (TV Drama)
She is known critic of nuclear technology for any purpose (military or civilian).

Awards

Faiz Award
Literary Performance Award
Saghir Siddiqui Adabi Award
K. P. Award
Sindh Speaker Award
SAARC Literary Award
In August 2006, she was nominated for Pakistan’s highest award, the Presidential Award Pride of Performance, which she declined as a mark of protest against the military government in Pakistan