Home

Faiz Ahmad 1911 - 1984 (73)

It is the dignity with which one goes to his death that is remembered by all, What of life, it comes and goes.


QUOTES



poems



Faiz Ahmad Faiz (1911 - 1984) was a Pakistani poet and writer, one of the most famous writers in Urdu language. Born on February 13, 1911 in the British, at that time, city of Punjab, he studied at Government College and joined the British Indian Army. After Pakistan's independence, Fez became the editor of The Pakistan Times and a leading member of the Pakistan Communist Party. In 1951 he was arrested on charges of participating in a conspiracy to overthrow the government. He spent 4 years in prison. When he was released he had become one of the most important members of the progressive writer movement. He left for London for 3 years but when he returned to the country he had again problems with the government. He was accused of publishing communist ideas and in 1960 he left for Moscow. In 1964, he returned and settled in Karachi, where he was appointed rector of Abdullah Haroon College.

In 1972, Prime Minister Bhutto appointed him Minister of Culture, he continued to serve in Bhutto's government until 1974. When Bhutto was executed, in In 1979, Fiz left the country and lived in Beirut, Lebanon, where he became the editor of a magazine funded by the Soviet Union. He returned to Pakistan in poor health, when the Lebanese war broke out in 1982. He died in 1984 in Lahore, Punjab, shortly after learning of his Nobel Prize for literature nomination.

Fez had been married since 1941, and had two daughters. A recognized Marxist, he received the Lenin Peace Prize from the Soviet Union in 1962. His work still has a strong influence on Pakistani literature and the arts. After his death, the government of Pakistan awarded him, in 1990, the highest political award of the nation.