Ahmed Faraz passes away; funeral today

Renowned poet Ahmed Faraz passed away, his son Shibli Faraz said on Monday night.

Talking to media here, Faraz’s son said his father expired and is no more among us.
Faraz was ailing for a long time and went to US for medical checkup.

Ahmed Faraz was born on January 14, 1931 and left us today on August 25, 2008. Faraz is considered one of the greatest modern Urdu poets of the last century and greatest living Urdu poet of present times. Faraz was his pseudonym ‘takhallus’, whereas his real name was Syed Ahmed Shah.

Faraz, who has been compared with Mohammad Iqbal and Faiz Ahmed Faiz, holds a unique position as one of the best poets of current times, with a fine but simplistic style of writing, even common people can easily understand and identify with. Ethnically a Pashto-speaking Pashtun, Ahmed Faraz learned and studied Persian and Urdu at the Peshawar University where he taught these subjects later.

There had been rumour on state TV that he died on 17 July, 2008 due to kidneys failure during treatment at a Chicago hospital in America. This news was denied by by his physician Tahir Rohail, brushing aside the earlier report of his death aired by state TV, saying he is alive and still under medical treatment at a local hospital in Chicago, America.