Veteran playwright Shoaib Hashmi passes away

Veteran actor and playwright Shoaib Hashmi passed away on Monday afternoon after a prolonged illness. He was 84 years old.

PTV reported the news via its official Twitter account. Hashmi, who was the husband of artist and educationist Salima Hashmi, was also a professor of economics. According to PTV, he held a Masters in Economics from Government College, Lahore, MSc from the London School of Economics and studied theatre from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London.

He is remembered for his productions Akkar Bakkar, Sach Gup, Taal Matol and Balila for TV before the 1990s and the columns he wrote for The News and Gulf News, according to a Dawn profile of him from 2012.

Hashmi also wrote extensively for the theatre and translated a few books. One of his most notable translations was A song for this day: 52 poems by his father-in-law Faiz Ahmed Faiz. His wife illustrated the book.

He also did quite a few translations of English dramas for local theatres owing to the lack of playwrights and drama publications in Urdu.