"The late Ijaz Husain Batalvi was a multi-dimensional personality — a short story writer, critic, poet, essayist, broadcaster, barrister and a teacher at Law College, Lahore. His literary career was spread over a span of half a century but surprisingly, he never published his work in a book form during his lifetime. Intizar Husain, in his article ‘Lazzat ki talash mein’, once asked him why it was so and the humble Ijaz sahib replied, ‘Mein koi sikkaband adeeb nahi hoon. Apni koi adbi haseeyat manwani maqsood nahin hai. Tabiyat idhar aaye likh liya, nahi aayee na likha. Asal mein main aik weekend writer hoon.’ (‘I am not some sort of stamp approved Litterateur. My objective is not to get an approval of my literary standing as such. When the feeling comes I write, if it doesn’t come I don’t write. Actually, I consider myself a weekend writer’.)"