[2][1] Qateel Shifai was born in Haripur District as Muhammad Aurangzeb in 1919 in British India (now Pakistan).
"Qateel" was his "takhallus" and "Shifai" was in honour of his ustaad (teacher) Hakeem Mohammed Yahya Shifa Khanpuri, whom he considered his mentor.
"[5] "In 1946, he was called to Lahore by Nazir Ahmed to work as the assistant editor of the monthly 'Adab-e-Latif', a literary magazine published since 1936.
Later, after working for some time as assistant lyricist to some of the famous poets/lyricists of the time (1948 to 1955),[7] he eventually became a highly successful film lyricist of Pakistan and won numerous awards over the years for his film song lyrics despite a crowded field of competitors in those days.
Among his contemporaries were poets like Kaifi Azmi, Amrita Pritam, Majrooh Sultanpuri, Sahir Ludhianvi, Majaz Lucknawi, Tanvir Naqvi, Saifuddin Saif, Ahmad Faraz and Muhammad Hasan Askari.
[6] In 1988, Qateel Shifai started work on his autobiography "Ghungroo Toot Gaye" with the assistance of his pupil, now a famous Urdu poet, Naeem Chishti.
His poetry has been translated into numerous languages including Hindi, Gujarati, English, Russian and Chinese.