Harris Khalique


Harris Khalique is a Pakistani poet in Urdu and English and a civil society activist. Khalique has authored nine collections of poetry and two books of non-fiction. In March 2018, he received the Presidential Pride of Performance Award from the state of Pakistan as an acknowledgement of his contributions to poetry.
In 2013, he was awarded the UBL Literary Excellence Award in the category of Urdu poetry for his collection Melay Mein. He is also a University of Iowa Honorary Fellow in Writing.

Career

Harris Khalique has managed and advised organisations, development projects and human rights campaigns in Pakistan, South Asia and Europe. He has worked with the Aga Khan Foundation, Amnesty International and United Nations agencies. Since March 2019, he is the Secretary-General of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. He has published papers and spoken at national and international conferences on history, culture, politics and issues surrounding human rights and international development. He has written for Dawn, The News International, The New York Times, The Hindu, The Friday Times and Deutsche Welles.
He gave the keynote speech at the Karachi Literature Festival in March 2020..

Literary Accomplishments

In 2015, he participated in the International Writing Program's Fall Residency at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, United States.

Poetry Collections

He lived and worked in Europe before returning to Islamabad. Khalique's paternal ancestors were Kashmiris who had converted to Islam and settled in Lucknow. His maternal ancestors were from Amritsar, Punjab. He currently lives in Islamabad.