He has written historical fiction that encompasses multiple eras ranging from ancient history to the near future as well as the diverse themes of time, religion, philosophy, ideas, architecture, archaeology, arts, iconic figures, progress, political systems, apartheids, evil and dissent.
In non-fiction he has written about history of evolution of laws in colonial and post-colonial settings, the elites that capture and control such laws, and their impact on ordinary citizens. He has also written about laws and politics as well as the politics of laws; about laws
Ikramullah was born in 1930 in Jandiala, India, and finished primary school in Amritsar. After partition, he moved to Multan where he earned a bachelors degree before proceeding on to the University Law College in Lahore for LLB. He joined the Insurance trade in 1965, after practicing as an independent lawyer. His first collection of short stories ‘Jungle’ was published in 1962 to critical acclaim, followed by several other works of fiction including ‘Badaltey Qalib’, ‘Sawa Naizey Par Sooraj’ and ‘Saaye Ki Awaz’. He also translated Chinua Achebe’s ‘Things Fall Apart’ as ‘Bikharti Duniya’ on behalf of National Book Foundation.
Zeenat Hisam is an independent writer-researcher and translator from Pakistan. Over the span of her career, she has written extensively on labour, gender and social development issues. She undertook evaluation of projects for a number of not-for-profit organisations working on community infrastructure development (2023), urban development (2022), women and child healthcare; women’s empowerment; women prisoners; women and crisis management in the Karachi violence; and the campaign against honour killings in the 2000s and 1990s.Her published works include a number of research reports, a couple of books, articles, book reviews, travelogues, personal essays and literary translations.
