Shakeel Ahmad was born on 25 December 1921 in Jhansi. Sheikh-ul-Hind Mehmood-ul-Hasan was the uncle of his father, whose name was Nasir Ali. By the age of seven, he had not only memorized the Quran but had also gone through all of the Urdu works of Ismail Meerati, in addition to some elementary books of Persian. He completed his graduation from Aligarh Muslim University at the age of nineteen and simultaneously, he passed all the exams of Uloom e Sharqiya from Allahabad Board. He was a lover of literature since an early age. He followed the literary guidance of Saadiq Jhaansvi in 1939. Then, he also sought the guidance of Kaan Sharan Gupt, a Hindi poet, in 1942. He moved to Pakistan in 1949 and started living in Karachi. He would write under the pen name Zia. Geet Mala, Lamha-e-Toor, Toret-e-Ajam, Moj-e-Gul and Shoal-e-Rang are the collections of his poetry. He died on 7 March 1999 in Karachi.