Birth anniversary of revolutionary poet, academic and journalist Faiz Ahmed Faiz will be observed on Wednesday.
Several ceremonies and events will be organised across the country to pay rich tributes to the legendary poet on his birth centennial. Faiz was born in 1911 in Kala Kader village, Sialkot, where he also received his early education. Afterwards, he got admitted to the Government College (University), Lahore. He began his professional career as a lecturer of English in an educational institute of Amritsar.
After the Second World War, Faiz entered the field of journalism and distinguished himself as the editor of Pakistan Times. As a poet, Faiz began writing on the conventional themes of love and beauty, but soon these conventional themes got submerged in larger social and political issues of the day. The poetic works of the late legendary poet moved the hearts of the people of South Asia. His first publication was was Naqsh-e-Faryadi, which inspired many young poets. In 1971, after the bifurcation of united Pakistan, the newly-elected government appointed him as a cultural adviser, the period, in which he laid the foundation of the Pakistan National Council of Arts (PNCA).
To his credit, Faiz has `Nuskha-e-Hai Wafa’, `Naqsh-e-Faryadi’, `Dast-e-Saba’, `Zindan Nama’ and `Dast-e-Tah-e-Sang’. Faiz was the first Asian poet who was awarded with the Lenin Peace Prize by the former Soviet Union in 1963. He was also nominated for the Nobel Prize shortly before his death in 1984.