MARDAN: Pashto writer, poet and researcher Qazi Abdul Haleem Asar Afghani was remembered during a function of Pashto Adabi Tolana (Pashto literary society) in Takht Bhai tehsil on Wednesday.

Mr Qazi was born in 1910 and died on December 8, 1987.

Participants praised Mr Qazi for his valuable contributions to the Pashto literature and urged the government to publish his books.

They also shed light on his life, academic and intellectual achievements, and political services.

President Pakistan Society of Criminology Fasihuddin chaired the meeting where writers, poets and academicians, including Sadullah Jan Barq, MR Shafaq, Israrullah Israr, Iqbal Iqbal, Usman Seemab, Izzat Khaplwak and Professor Pir Zahir Shah, were in attendance in large numbers.

Mr Fasihuddin shared with participants different aspects of Mr Qazi’s personality and the time he spent with the writer in school and college.

He said Mr Qazi authored more than 200 books some of which couldn’t be published.

Other speakers declared Mr Qazi a great scholar, a mystic, a researcher, a freedom fighter, a representative of tribal society and an expert on old languages and genealogies of Pashto and Persian speaking communities of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

They said Mr Qazi enjoyed great respect in academic and tribal circles of Pakistan and Afghanistan.