ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Aug. 26 (UPI) -- Renowned Pakistani poet Ahmad Faraz has died in Islamabad at age 78, family members say.
He had been in a critical condition at Shifa International Hospital in Islamabad since returning from the United States last month, the newspaper Pakistan Dawn said. Faraz had suffered kidney failure and had been put on dialysis while in Chicago. He died Monday.
The newspaper said Faraz had a passion for change and progressive ideals, carving out an exceptional career in Urdu-language poetry whose creations were widely praised and sung in Pakistan. Critics said his poems were rich in romance and always took the side of the unwashed and downtrodden masses, while producing consternation in the halls of power.
His poems were so upsetting to the powerful, he was exiled during the regime of Gen. Zia al-Haq. The Dawn said the military dictator couldn't tolerate Faraz's association with the Peoples Party government after he became the head of the Pakistan Academy of Letters.
When democratic rule returned, he was named head of Pakistan's National Book Foundation.
