Death anniversary: Faraz remembered

ISLAMABAD: On the death anniversary of legendary poet, Ahmed Faraz, an event had been organised at Lok Virsa on Wednesday to pay homage to his immortal legacy, overt dissension of the status quo of his time and his tireless work for the nation.

Among the speakers at the event, senator, Aitzaz Ahsan, elucidated that Faraz’s native language was Pashto, however, he is best remembered for his Urdu poetry.

Ahsan said that “Faraz was the king of Ghazal and after six decades, he would be remembered as a classic poet of Urdu who had no parallels in contemporaries”.

The senator added that upon the fall of Dhaka he had written an angry poem criticising the army for the indiscriminate killing of East Pakistani’s.

He said that “He was imprisoned and considered a traitor for writing that poem but he always stood on the right side of history”.

Senator Shibli Faraz said that “It is unfortunate that in the Ziaul Haq era visionaries and intellectuals, such as, Faraz who should have guided the society, were instead kept away from the youth deliberately”.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 12^th, 2016.