Shoukat Hussain Shoro, an illustrious short-story writer, playwright, essayist, critic, and columnist of the present times, passed away after a brief illness at South City Hospital Karachi late on Tuesday night at the age of 74.
Shoro was born to an eminent jurist of yesteryear Abdul Karim Shoro in village Noor Mohammad Shoro of district Sujawal. After getting his early education from Chandiya High School Sujawal, he moved to Hyderabad and went on to complete his master’s degree in Sindhi literature from Sindh University Jamshoro.
It was an era of socio-political change in Sindh when he started writing during the mid-60s, and his writings were greatly influenced by that evolution the province had been witnessing.
At an early stage of his career, he preferred writing short stories but with time he became a household name in Sindh literature by writing plays and columns depicting social issues.
His first story ‘Akhiyoon Roee Piyoon’ was published in a famous literary magazine Rooh Rehan. He authored dozens of stories published in various magazines, including Suhni magazine of Hyderabad. So far, four of his story collection books have been published namely ‘Goongi Dharti, Borro Akas’ (1981), ‘Akhiyun Main Tangiyal Sapna’ (1983), ‘Gum Thiyal Paachho’ (1989), and ‘Raat Jo rang’ (2011). His other book is a compilation entitled ‘Hundred Sindhi Short Stories’.
He served as editor of monthly Sindhi magazine Gul Phul and then joined Pakistan Television (PTV) Karachi centre as script producer. Afterwards, he was appointed as director of the Institute of Sindhology, Jamshoro in December 2000 from where he retired in July 2009.
He visited different countries of the world with literary delegations and his stories were published in various Sindhi magazines of India – prominent among those was his all-time famous short story ‘Death of Fear’ that was published in 2009.
Following his exceptional services in the field of Sindhi literature, he was bestowed with the ‘Best Short Story Writer’ award by Saranga Publication in 2001.
He would be laid to rest in Jamshoro.
