Faiz Ahmad Faiz
Pakistani writer
Died when: 73 years 281 days (885 months)Star Sign: Aquarius
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Faiz Ahmad Faiz MBE NI (13 February 1911 – 20 November 1984;Urdu, Punjabi: ??? ???? ???) was a Pakistani poet, and author of Urdu and Punjabi literature.
Faiz was one of the most celebrated Pakistani Urdu writers of his time.Outside literature, he has been described as "a man of wide experience" having been a teacher, an army officer, a journalist, a trade unionist and a broadcaster.
Born in Punjab, British India, Faiz studied at Government College and Oriental College, and went on to serve in the British Indian Army.
After partition, Faiz joined the liberal english-daily Pakistan Times as editor.He was also leading member of the Communist Party before his arrest and imprisonment in 1951 for his alleged part in a conspiracy to overthrow the Liaquat administration and replace it with a left-wing, pro-Soviet government.
Faiz was released after four years in prison and spent his time in Moscow and London, becoming a notable member of the Progressive Writers' Movement.
After the downfall of Ayub Khan's government, and the separation of Bangladesh, he worked as an aide to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, but exiled himself to Beirut after Bhutto's execution at the hands of Zia ul-Haq.
Faiz was an avowed Marxist, and he received the Lenin Peace Prize from the Soviet Union in 1962, along with a nomination for the Nobel Prize in literature.
His work remains influential in Pakistan.He was posthumously honoured when the Pakistan Government conferred upon him the nation's highest civil award, the Nishan-e-Imtiaz, in 1990.
