Sher Zaman Taizi (3 November 1931 – 22 December 2009) was

Pashtun Pashtuns (, , ; ;), also known as Pakhtuns, or Pathans, are an Iranic ethnic group primarily residing in southern and eastern Afghanistan and northwestern Pakistan. They were historically also referred to as Afghans until 1964 after the ...

writer, poet, intellectual and journalist from

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

Career

Born in

Pabbi Pabbi ( ; ) is a large town in Pabbi Tehsil of Nowshera District of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. It is located on both sides of the Grand Trunk (GT) around 20 km from Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pukhtunkhwa province. O ...

Nowshera District Nowshera District (, ) is a district in the Peshawar Division of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. The capital and district headquarter is Nowshera city. Overview and history Nowshera was previously a tehsil (subdivision) of Pesha ...

Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (; ; , ; abbr. KP or KPK), formerly known as the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), is a province of Pakistan. Located in the northwestern region of the country, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is the fourth largest province of Paki ...

(then NWFP), Present-day

. Taizi served in the Army Service Corps as a clerk (1949–1954), Intelligence Bureau of the Government of Pakistan,

Peshawar Peshawar is the capital and List of cities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by population, largest city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It is the sixth most populous city of Pakistan, with a district p ...

, (1954–1977), as Liaison Officer

Afghan Refugees Afghan refugees are citizens of Afghanistan who were forced to flee from their country as a result the continuous wars that the country has suffered since the Afghan-Soviet war, the Afghan civil war, the Afghanistan war (2001–2021) or either p ...

Commissionerate, Peshawar (1979–1980),

UNHCR The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is a United Nations agency mandated to aid and Humanitarian protection, protect refugees, Internally displaced person, forcibly displaced communities, and Statelessness, s ...

(Protection Officer and Programme Officer; 1980–1991), daily the Frontier Post, Peshawar (Assistant Editor; 1991–1995) and

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

Education Project at Peshawar (Editor of the New Home New Life – a trilingual magazine; 1996–1997). Later he was attached to the Tribal Women Welfare Association as vice-chairperson and editor-in-chief of its bilingual quarter Neway Zhwand (New Life). During his service in the Intelligence Bureau, Taizi spent more than 15 years in tribal areas, having stayed in every tribal agency, and more than seven years in the Pakistan Embassy in

Kabul, Afghanistan Kabul is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province. The city is divided for administration into 22 municipal districts. A 2025 estima ...

Education

Having done his M.A. in

Pashto Pashto ( , ; , ) is an eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family, natively spoken in northwestern Pakistan and southern and eastern Afghanistan. It has official status in Afghanistan and the Pakistani province of Khyb ...

, Taizi did his

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

from the Area Study Centre, Peshawar University. His thesis in English is related to "the

Saur Revolution The Saur Revolution (; ), also known as the April Revolution or the April Coup, was a violent coup d'état and uprising staged on 27–28 April 1978 (, ) by the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA), which overthrew President of Afghan ...

(1978) – the

Communist Revolution A communist revolution is a proletarian revolution inspired by the ideas of Marxism that aims to replace capitalism with communism. Depending on the type of government, the term socialism can be used to indicate an intermediate stage between ...

that took place in April 1978".

Literary figure

In Pashto literary circles Taizi was still known as Ghamzhan, although he has long given up that

pen name A pen name or nom-de-plume is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen name may be used to make the author's na ...

and instead uses his family name Taizi.

Published books in Pashto

*Warsho (poetry), *Soma (poetry, *Gulpana (drama), *Shpelae (short stories), *Gul Khan (novel), *Amanat (novel), *Rahman Koroona (novel), *Ghunday (novel), *Wade o’ n’ sho (novel), *Nara Zheba (research article on Pashto language), *Novel: Hunan au Safar (research article on characteristics of novel) *Da Pukhto Leekdod: Yao Sarsari Jaj (research article on Pashto script) *Suqut-e-Afghanistan (Translated into Pashto from English – The Fall of Afghanistan by Samad Ghaus).

Published books in English

*Polar Bear (Tr. From Pashto poetry of Mohammad Hasham Zamani), *The Pukhtun’ Unity (From Pashto – Qami Wahdat by Mohammad Afzal Khan, a former federal minister), *Abad Khan: The Lost Ring of the Chain (Tr. From Urdu by Anwar Khan Deewana), *Rahman Baba: the Outstanding Painter of Thoughts, *The Saur Revolution (Research article on the Communist Revolution that took place in Afghanistan in 1978), *Afghanistan: From Najib to Mojaddedi (booklet in two volumes), *Afghanistan: A Clash of Interests, *Afghanistan: Two Governments and Three Capitals, *Afghanistan: Drug Menace in Central Asia, *Afghanistan: Landmine Menace in Afghanistan *Bare-foot in Coarse Clothes (translated from Dari; by Dr. Hassan Sharq, a former Prime Minister of Afghanistan) *Bacha Khan in Afghanistan, *Terrorist Attacks in USA and US Attack on Afghanistan. *Secret Plans and Open Faces (Tr. from Pashto; Pate Tautiye, Barbande Tsere by Hikmatyar) *Dispute between Iran and Afghanistan on the issue of Hirmand River (Tr. from Persian: by Gholam-Reza Fakhari, Tehran; 1993) *Nights in Kabul (Tr. from Dari by General Umarzai) *Causes of the Fall of the Islamic State of Afghanistan under Ustad Rabbani in Kabul (Tr. from Dari: by Syed ‘Allam-ud-Din Atseer) *General Elections in Afghanistan 2005.

Published books in Pashto and English

*#The Mother Tongue (Moranae Zheba).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Taizi, Sherzaman Pashtun poets 2009 deaths 1931 births Linguists from Pakistan Pashto-language poets Pashto-language writers Pashtun male writers 20th-century Pakistani male writers 20th-century linguists Pashtun academics