[3] Shahab first rose to prominence when, at 16, an essay he penned was selected for the first prize in an international competition organized by the Reader's Digest, London, and, in 1941, for being the first Muslim from Jammu and Kashmir qualifying for the Indian Civil Service.

[5] Shahab moved to Karachi, Pakistan, following the 1947 partition and took charge as Under-Secretary (Import and Export), Ministry of Trade, of the newly-formed independent state.

[1][6] Shahab himself published in English and Urdu languages for contemporary newspapers and magazines of Pakistan Writers' Guild, founded at Karachi in January 1959.

[7][6] Shahab's essay Maaji poetically outlines the simplicity of his mother and the relationship that his parents shared, detailing migration, governorship, family dynamics, and death in a short chapter.

[1][9] The real disclosure came in the final chapter of Shahab Nama that alluded to an out-of-world personality whom he used to call Ninety[10] as his spiritual guide.