Daily Times

The 108th birth anniversary of revolutionary Urdu poet Faiz Ahmad Faiz was observed on Wednesday. Born in Sialkot on February 13, 1911, Faiz in 1963 became the first Asian poet to be awarded the Lenin Peace Prize, the Soviet Union’s equivalent of the Nobel Prize. He was also the recipient of other awards including the Nigar Awards, HRC Peace Prize, Nishan-e-Imtiaz and Avicenna Prize. 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. They had two daughters – Salima and Muniza. In 1936, he started a branch of Anjuman Tarraqi Pasand Mussanafin-e-Hind in Punjab and was also a member and secretary of this branch. Faiz had also worked as editor of Mahanama Adab-e-Latif and became a lecturer in English at MAO College in 1935 and then at Hailey College of Commerce.

Published in Daily Times, February 14^th 2019.