Saadat Hassan Manto(1912-1955)

Saadat Hassan Manto was born in a village near Ludhiana. He had a wife and 3 daughters to support and lived the last years of his life in Lahore, Pakistan where he stayed politically very active till the last days of his life. He also played a commendable and very supportive role in helping to build the film industry in newly-created nation of Pakistan after 1947. Earlier during his stay in India, he had written the film story for an award-winning Indian movie Mirza Ghalib (1954) and then his original short story 'Jhumke' was adapted for Pakistani hit film Badnam (1966). He is known as the most controversial short story writer in Urdu language. Government of Pakistan issued a commemorative postage stamp honoring him in 2005. In 2012, President of Pakistan awarded him Nishan-I-Imtiaz (Distinguished Service to Pakistan Award) .When Manto died on January 18, 1955, at age 42, thousands of people in Lahore walked in his funeral procession, a rare tribute which the public pays to a writer.