President Biden confers lifetime achievement award on Pakistani-American Urdu writer, poet Raies Warsi

NEW YORK: US President Joseph R Biden conferred life time achievement award with medal to president Urdu center New York, writer and poet Raies Warsi in recognition of his life long commitment to building a strong nation through volunteer services.

New York State Assembly member Jessica Gonzalez presented the award to Raies Warsi for his services.

Raies Warsi has been associated with the International Humanitarian Foundation for a long time, apart from this he has also been associated with the Carter Foundation, and Amnesty International.

Raies Warsi has served for the promotion of Urdu language and literature at the global level for about 34 years.

Raies Warsi organized the first Urdu conference in the United Nations to include Urdu language in the official languages of the United Nations.

The heads of several countries, including the Secretary General of the United Nations, Pakistan, India, and the United States highlighted the importance and usefulness of the Urdu language in the conference and appreciated the services of Raies Warsi.

Prominent writers of Urdu from many countries of the world participated in this conference and a resolution was also adopted demanding to include Urdu in the official languages of the United Nations.

Raies Warsi and his brother Naseer Warsi have been publishing the world’s first international literary journal named “Virsa ” for last three years and Indian and Pakistani editions of this literary journal are issued separately in which the articles of prominent poets, writers, intellectuals and critics of era are published.

Raies Warsi was also awarded the pride of Pakistan award by the federal ministry of overseas Pakistanis, Government of Pakistan in 2017. Apart from this, Raies Warsi was honored with dozens of awards from different states of America.

Raies Warsi’s ghazals have been sung by famous singers from Pakistan and India including Ghulam Ali, Ustad Zakir Ali Khan, Amanat Ali Khan, Hamid Ali Khan, Humira Channa, Parvez Mehdi, Rafaqaat Ali Khan, Udit Narayan and Sadhana Sargaram.

His collection of works was published as “Aina Hoon Mein” with comments by prominent writers Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi, Prof. Gopichand Narang, Dr. Jameel Jalbi, Dr. Farman Fatehpuri, Ahmad Faraz, Iftikhar Arif, Syed Zameer Jafari.

The President of the department of Urdu Faisalabad University, Dr. Sadaf Naqvi, published a collection of articles written on the poetry and personality of Raies Warsi, a distinguished and famous writer of the Urdu world with name of “Raees Shahr Sukhn”.

The other books of Raies Warsi “Kainat Dil” and literary background of Lucknow have also been published.