Ahmed Faraz has born Syed Ahmed Shah on 12 January 1931 in Kohat. 'Faraz' is his pen name. He moved to Peshawar with his family. He studied in famous Edwards College, Peshawar and received Masters in Urdu and Persian from Peshawar University. Ethnically a Pashtun Syed, Ahmed Faraz studied Persian and Urdu at the Peshawar University. He later became lecturer at the Peshawar University. Later he joined the Central Government's National Centers network, like many intellectuals, to promote national cohesion, between the provinces especially East Pakistan, through the arts and culture. His anti-establishment poems landed him in jail but the Supreme Court came to his rescue. He was the Chairman of the Pakistan Academy of Letters. A most sought-after poet, he has won several national and international awards. His work has been translated into Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Hindi, Macedonian, Russian and Swedish. Amongst the poets who adopted English as their medium of expression, the most well-known is the late Daud Kamal, a professor of English at the Peshawar University. He published several volumes, translated the work of eminent Urdu poets into English and won international awards.He was acclaimed one of the modern Urdu poets of the last century. He died in Islamabad on 25 August 2008. He was awarded Hilal-e-Imtiaz, Sitara-i-Imtiaz and after his death Hilal-e-Pakistan by the government. He died on 25 August 2008.
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