Friday, January 6, 2012

Pashto poet suffers brain haemorrhage,Financial help sought for ailing progressive poet Murad Shinwari

Financial help sought for ailing progressive poet Murad Shinwari



our salute to such a huge personality who served the pashto literature for such a long time


Prominent Pashto poet, fictionist, critic and song writer Murad Shinwari was admitted to the Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH) after he suffered brain haemorrhage on Wednesday night.

Literary and welfare organisations including Hamza Baba Adabi Jirga Landikotal, Khyber Agency, Culture Journalists Forum Peshawar and Hamza Adabi Society have appealed to the governor and Culture Directorates of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata to extend financial help to the ailing Pashto poet and script writer.

Murad Shinwari, the lone son of Baba-e-Pashto Ghazal Amir Hamza Khan Shinwari, is one of the pioneers of new trends in the modern Pashto poem. Of late, he was living a miserable life as he was drawing a meagre pension from the Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation. He was admitted to Khyber Teaching Hospital after a brain haemorrhage on Wednesday night, his family sources said.

“Nobody from anywhere has contacted us. Two years ago when my father suffered a minor heart attack, we had appealed to the governor for financial assistance but it had fallen on deaf ears.

Afghan government offered to get my father’s poetry published which is in the press in Peshawar but I look up to the Pakistani government to do the job,” revealed Sajjad Ali, the elder son of the poet.

Murad Shinwari was born on 1928 at Landikotal. He got his early education from a government school in Peshawar and then did Bachelor of Teaching from the Punjab University and master in Pashto literature from University of Peshawar.

He was awarded gold medal for his outstanding position and appointed as librarian, lexicographer and translator at the Pashto Academy, University of Peshawar. He also served in Khyber Rifles as senior instructor but switched over to Radio Pakistan, Peshawar and retired as senior script editor in 1989.

Murad Shinwari is considered as the pioneer of ‘azad nazm’ (free verse) in Pashto and author of several books in Pashto, Palwashay (short stories collection) and Khyber Adab. The translation of two plays of Shakespeare including ‘The Merchant of Venice’ and Alfred Tennyson’s poem ‘The Lady of Shallot’ in versified Pashto were his masterpieces.

He wrote screenplays and songs for more than 50 Pashto films in which he projected real Pakhtun culture.

He regularly contributed articles to numerous Pashto magazines and newspapers on various literary and social issues. “I had received a phone call from the Governor’s House long ago after my appeal appeared in the press but it was followed by a complete silence. My father has immensely contributed to Pashto language and literature, but who cares,” complained the dejected Sajjad Ali.

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