Mustafa Zaidi was born as Syed Mustafa Hasnain Zaidi on 10 Oct 1930 in Allahabad. He completed his Master of Arts in Englishliterature in 1952 from the Government College, Lahore. Initially, he taught at Karachi's Islamia College and then at Peshawar University. In 1954, he passed the competitive examination and was sent to England for training before being given the posts of deputy commissioner and deputy secretary.
He married Vera Zaidi, a German woman. They had two children, a boy and a girl. He died on 12 October 1970 in Karachi under mysterious circumstances.