While at Law College, he was elected President of the Students Union and won and retained the title of "Best All Pakistan Debater" for four years.

The DSF had been popular in all four provinces and was succeeded, after its ban, by the National Students Federation (NSF) which exists to date.

In his younger days Minto was an active trade unionist and organised the Military Engineering Service (MES) Workers Union.

These committees provide local farmers with a platform for discussion and action in respect to the problems faced by them in Pakistan's agrarian society where ownership of land vests predominantly in big landowners.

After the independence of Pakistan in 1947, he played a key role in establishing the first literary movement of Lahore, namely Halqa-e Arbab-e Zauq (Circle of the Men of Good Taste).

[1] His first essay "The Issue of Language in Pakistan" was published in 1951 in the literary journal Adb e Latif (Urdu: ادب لطیف).

His essay The Technique of the One Act Playایکانکی ڈرامہ (Adb e Latif 1957ادب لطیف) was part of the curriculum for graduate studies in Urdu literature.

Abid Hassan Minto's favorite writers are Rajinder Singh Bedi and Saadat Hasan Manto.

He remains a practising lawyer and is the Senior Consultant to "Minto and Mirza,[8][9] a Lahore based law firm.

[15] For his political views and activities, and especially during the lawyers movement against General Zia ul Haq, Minto faced arrests and detentions several times.

[1] A collection of Minto's essays mostly written during the 1950s and 1960s on ideological issues in literature was published in 1986 titled 'Nuqta-e-Nazar نقطہ نظر' (The Viewpoint) with a second edition in 2003 containing some later writings also.

Apni Jang Rahay Gi[16] (Our Fight Will Continue) (published: 2016), is the most recent book by Minto.

Minto's father Khawaja Ahmad Hassan (1896—1982), a well known civil lawyer in Rawalpindi was a leader of the Indian National Congress until 1943 later joining the Muslim League to play a role in its local politics during the Pakistan movement.