Faiz Ahmad Faiz was born on February 13, 1911 in Sialkot, the birthplace of Allama Muhammad Iqbal.
After having completing his education, Faiz worked as a teacher, journalist, army officer, trade unionist, broadcaster and a politician as well.
He knew Urdu, Russian, English, Punjabi, Arabic, and Persian languages
He was arrested in 1951 as an alleged part of conspiracy to overthrow the Liaquat administration and replace it with a left-wing government. He was released after four years in prison and went on to become a notable member of the Progressive Writers’ Movement and eventually an aide to Bhutto administration, before being self-exiled to Beirut.He also served in British Indian Army before independence of India-Pakistan and was promoted up to a rank of lieutenant-colonel. However Faiz resigned in 1947 to join Pakistan Times, a local newspaper of progressive narrative.
Faiz was also among the first ever official Pakistani delegation to visit Bangladesh. On conclusion of Bangladesh tour he wrote his famous Ghazal “Hum Kay Thehray Ajnabi”.
Faiz Ahmad Ahmad was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize in 1963, which was equivalent to the Nobel Prize in the then USSR, PTV news channel reported.
Faiz was nominated for Nobel Prize in Literature.
Faiz’s literary work was posthumously publicly honoured when the Pakistan Government conferred upon him the nation’s highest civil award, Nishan-e-Imtiaz, in 1990.
Faiz Ahmad Faiz wrote dozens of ghazals, dialogues and songs for films. Faiz breathed his last on 20th November 1984 at the age of 73 years. He buried in Lahore’s Gulberg graveyard.
His notable works include Naqsh-e-Faryadi, Dast-e-Sabah and Zindan-nama.
Faiz married Alys Faiz a British national who had a tremendous influence on his life and poetry.
Moreover, Faiz spent much of the 1950s and 1960s promoting communism in Pakistan.
In the 1965 war between India and Pakistan, he worked in an honorary capacity in the Department of Information.
He had written his famous poem “Hum Dekhenge” (We Will See) in January, 1979 during a time of great political upheaval in Pakistan.
Along with Allama Iqbal, Faiz is often known as the “Poet of the East”.
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