Mushtaq Ahmad Yusufi

Mushtaq Ahmad Yousufi D.Litt (HC), SI, HI is an Urdu satirical and humor writer from Pakistan. Banker by profession, Yousufi has also served as the head of several national and international financial institutions.

He has received Sitara-e-Imtiaz and Hilal-e-Imtiaz, the highest civil honors by the Government of Pakistan. He was also given the highest literary award by Pakistan Academy of Letters in 1999 the Kamal-e-Fun Award.

His books have received many awards and critical acclaim.

Yousufi was born in British India in a learned family. His father Abdul Karim Khan Yousufi was chairman of the Jaipur Municipality, and later Speaker of the Jaipur Legislative Assembly. Yousufi completed his early education in Rajputana and earned B.A. from Agra University while M.A. Philosophy and LL.B from Aligarh University. After partition of India his family migrated to Karachi, Pakistan.

Ibn-e-Insha, himself an Urdu satirist and humourist, wrote about Yousufi: "...if ever we could give a name to the literary humour of our time, then the only name that comes to mind is that of Yousufi!"

Another scholar Dr Zaheer Fatehpuri wrote, "We are living in the '...Yousufi era' of Urdu literary humour..."

The Yousufi era started in 1961 when Yousufi's first book Chiragh Talay was published.