Nadeem Zuberi

The lush green lawns of the Mohatta Palace Museum brought to life with vibrant hues and tastes of poetry recently at the occasion of the Urdu ‘Qaumi Mushaira’ organised in connection with the objective of reviving the tradition of ‘Mushaira’, which has been a part of our culture since the Mughal times.

The spectacular event was attended by renowned poets from all over the country who recited their poetry and collected praise from the audience. The guest of honour of the ‘Mushaira’ was Amjad Islam Amjad and the event was presided over by Iftikhar Arif whereas hosted by famous poetess Nasira Zuberi.

The poets highlighted the social issues through their funny and sometimes, hard hitting kalaams. The poetry dealt mainly with real life issues some reflected on the social life and others on contemporary issues in a light as well as harsh way.

Poetry lovers were seen enjoying ‘Mushaira’ with keen smiles and appreciating the poets. Guests made themselves comfortable at the lush green lawns of Mohatta Palace Museum enjoying magnificent atmosphere of the museum and splendid poetry by the renowned poets.

The main objective of organising the ‘Mushaira’ was to revive the lost tradition of ‘Qaumi Mushaira’ and to emphasise the fact that even today writers young or old from across the country choose poetry as a vehicle for their creative expression.

Iftikhar Arif recited some of his famous ghazals, couplets and verses for the delight of the attendees and the large crowd wholeheartedly appreciated his poetry and asked for once more and he recited as long as he could for the cheer of the people.

Nasira Zuberi recited poems from her latest book of poetry which she has recently written it was her third book “Tesra Qadam” which became very popular among poetry lovers besides her earlier books “Shagoon” and “Kaanch ka Chiragh”.

Renowned Urdu poets of our country participated in the ‘Qaumi Mushaira’ including; Anwar Shaoor, Sabir Zafar, Mahboob Zafar, Inam-ul-Haq Javed, Mir Ahmed Naveed, Fatoma Hassan, Shahzad Nayyar, Nasir Ali Syed and Rehman Faris.

The ‘Qaumi Mushaira’ was arranged for the first time in collaboration with corporate sector. This initiative was taken by famous poetess and journalist Nasira Zuberi she involved corporate sector in organizing this literary event in the same way the corporate sector support music programmes to revive and promote literary activities in Karachi and bring change in society by attracting youth towards such events. Because poetry is also a part of our culture and help creating creative minds in our society.

The venue was full of poetry lovers as the event was well attended by the families of corporate personalities as well as our major political parties’ representatives also attended the event enthusiastically including Tajdar Haider, Fasisal Sabzwari, Anees Qayamkhani and Naeem ur Rehman to name a few.

Hence the event was a success and it is hoped that our corporate sector will continue its efforts in taking our national and regional poetry to new level of appreciation and promote and support the poets in continuing their literary journey. Some of the famous verses recited by the poets were: