Iftikhar Hussain Arif[a] (born 21 March 1944) is a Pakistani poet and litterateur of Urdu.

His main theme is romantic Urdu poetry and he has headed the Pakistan Academy of Letters and the National Language Authority.

[4] He then joined the Pakistan Television Corporation (Karachi Center) where he teamed up with Obaidullah Baig for the PTV program Kasauti.

[5] Arif has published three poetry collections: Mehr-i-Doneem (1984), Harf-i-Baryab (1994)[5][1][6] and Jahan-e-Maloom.

Oxford University Press has published an anthology of his translated poetry, Written in the Season of Fear, with an introduction by Harris Khalique, a poet who writes in English, Urdu and Punjabi.