Tarique Ashraf was a Pakistani writer and publisher. Tariq Ashraf was the owner of Suhni printing press, editor-in-chief of Suhni Literary Magazine, while his novel Meero Dharial and Jail Dairy are other notable works. It is also claimed by certain Sindhi writers that Tariq introduced great Sindhi short story writerAmar Jaleel by publishing his stories and even published Suhni's special edition called "Amar Jaleel Number" to promote him as a short story writer.
Biography
Tarique Ashraf was born on 5 July 1940 in Hyderabad, Sindh, Pakistan. His real name was Syed Ashraf Ali Shah. His father's name was Syed Lutuf Ali Shah and mother's name was Bano Bibi. He got school education from Hyderabad and received Master of Arts degree from University of Sindh. He had interest with book reading since childhood. His first story was "Dari" which was published in the literary magazine Badal in 1960. His other early stories were published in "Mehran", Rooh Rihan" and other Sindhi language magazines. In 1960, Tarique Ashraf and his friend Ghulam Nabi Mughal founded publishing house called "Idara-e-Adab-e-Nau" and published his own and other writer's literary works. This publishing house was later on re-named as "Suhni Publications". It was a time when there was a shortage of Sindhi language magazines and there was a need of a good quality regular Sindhi language literary magazine. To meet this need he launched "Suhni" Magazine in 1966. In his editorship, this magazine was proved to be the top class literary journal. This magazine not only introduced many new writers but also published special editions on the work of renowned authors including Amar Jaleel, Naseem Kharel and Shaikh Ayaz. Tarique was a revolutionary writer. He boldly wrote against One Unit in Pakistan, Policies of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and dictatorship of General Zia-ul-Haque. As a result he was jailed in 1975 for 22 months and again in 1983 for three months. He was a man of principles and despite of facing so many difficulties he never compromised over his principles. He produced books and diaries even when he was in the jail.
