25th death anniversary of Faiz Ahmad Faiz being observed today
Pakistan
25th death anniversary of Faiz Ahmad Faiz being observed today
Faiz Ahmad Faiz was among the greatest Urdu poets of twentieth century. With the passage of time, people forget the great ones who depart from this world; however discussions regarding Faiz are still debatable, although 2.5 decades have passed since he died. Many critiques of Urdu literature still think that Faiz Ahmad Faiz (1911-1984) is the greatest poet after Ghalib and Iqbal. Faiz was born on 13th February 1911, did B.A. from Government College Lahore and then also did M.A. English from there in 1932. Later on, Faiz also pursued M.A. Arabic from Oriental College Lahore. He then joined army in 1942 as a Captain and soon got promoted to the rank of Major in 1943 and Lt. Colonel in 1944, respectively. Faiz got retired from the army in 1947 and came back to Lahore and in 1959, he was appointed as secretary Pakistan Arts Council and worked their till 1962. On 9th March 1951, Faiz was arrested by the government for assistance regarding Rawalpindi conspiracy case. He spent 4 years in Sargodha, Sahiwal, Hyderabad and Karachi jails. Faiz was release on 2nd April 1955 and most of the poems of Zinda Nama were written during this period of his life.
