Ahmed Faraz [Pakistan]:
His name is familiar not only to all Urdu-knowing people round the globe but also to millions who do not know the language but have heard Mehdi Hassan’s soulful rendering of his poem Ranjish hee sahee. Without doubt, he is the leading Urdu poet recognised as the third greatest, after Allama Iqbal and Faiz Ahmed Faiz. You may well ask "so what about him?" Well, he has been thrown out from his job as Chairman, Pakistan National Book Foundation, which has its headquarters in Islamabad. [...]
You may well ask why did General Musharraf’s government behave in this boorish manner towards a poet regarded by the common people as the pride of Pakistan? Believe it or not, it was under the political pressure of Muhajirs, migrants from Uttar Pradesh. They insisted that so important a post should be held by a man whose mother tongue is Urdu: Faraz’s mother tongues are Pushto and Punjabi, but he writes only in Urdu.
This entry was posted by eeksypeeksy
on Sunday, August 07, 2005 at 12:37 AM.
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