| Ishtiaq Ahmad | |
| Birth Date: | 1944 |
| Death Place: | Karachi, Pakistan |
| Birth Place: | Panipat, India |
| Occupation: | Novelist, Editor of [1], Regular Columnist at Weekly Zarb-e-Momin |
| Nationality: | Pakistani |
| Period: | 1970–2015 |
| Genre: | Spy fiction, suspense thriller novels |
| Subject: | Patriotism, Islam related topics in his writings |
| Notableworks: | Inspector Jamshaid series |
Ishtiaq Ahmad (اﺸﺘﻴﺎﻖ اﺤﻤﺩ in Urdu), (1944 - 17 November 2015) was a Pakistani fiction writer famous for his spy and detective novels in the Urdu language, particularly the Inspector Jamshaid series. He was born in Karnal now in India. Then his family migrated to city Jhang in Pakistan. He started his career by writing short stories for children and then wrote his first novel in 1973. He is the author of the highest number of novels (his 773rd novel is published by Atlantis Publications in April 2011) by any author in any language throughout the world.[2] He was influenced by the Urdu fiction writer Ibn-e-Safi.[3]
He started his career by writing short stories for children and then wrote his first novel in 1973. He was at his peak of popularity in the 1970s to 1990s when paper printed novels were most read. He was famous due to his Inspector Jamshed novels, Inspector Kamran Mirza novels, and Shoki Brothers novels, and sometimes a combination of all three [3] As of 2014, he was an editor of the magazine [4] (novel for children) and writing novels for Atlantis Publications, Karachi. Ishtiaq Ahmed was among the first to write Urdu fiction for children in Pakistan.[3]
His most famous novels include Sunehri Chatan, Jazeeray Ka Samandar, Dairay Ka Samanadar, Jeraal Series, Duniya ke us Paar, Sone ka Jahaaz
Ishtiaq Ahmad has authored hundreds of suspense thriller novels in Urdu for children which include characters such as Inspector Jamshed, Inspector Kamran Mirza as well as the Shoki brothers.[3] He had written nearly 800 spy and detective novels during his writing career.
He died on 17 November 2015 at Karachi International Airport on his way back to Lahore. He was waiting to board a plane after attending Karachi International Book Fair held at Karachi Expo Centre. His cause of death was a serious Heart Attack. Among his survivors were his wife, five sons and three daughters.[5] He is buried in his hometown Jhang.