JEDDAH: Prominent Pakistani and Indian poets, humorists and academics will grace the two-day Urdu festival being organized in Jeddah at the weekend by the newly constituted Gulf Urdu Council (GUC).
The festival will revolve around a grand mushaira on Thursday, May 12, and a seminar on Friday, May 13. Prof. Peerzada Qasim, former vice chancellor of Karachi University and an accomplished and popular poet, will be the chief guest.
Dr. Irtiza Karim, director of India’s National Council for the Promotion of the Urdu Language (NCPUL) and a well-known fiction writer and critic, will be the main attraction at the seminar. Khalid Irfan, a Pakistani poet based in the United States, who is widely known for his biting satire and rib-tickling poetry, will be another star in attendance.
A number of poets based in different Saudi cities and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states are expected to recite their poetry. They include Ahmed Adil (Bahrain), Sohel Saquib (Dammam), Sadaqat Tirmizi (Kuwait), Nadim Maher (Qatar), Ashfaq Nasir (Abha), Hisham Syed (Riyadh) and Rukhsar Nazimabadi (Bahrain). Those from Jeddah include Aalami Urdu Markaz President Athar Nafees Abbasi, Naeem Bazidpuri, Nasir Burney Beg, Ahmed Farooqui, Abdullah Bin-Mahfouz, Altaf Shaheryar and Faisal Tufail.
The brainchild of the GUC in Jeddah is Mahtab Qadr, who is known for his valuable promotion of Urdu. Mir Firasat Ali Khusrow from Riyadh, who is known for his chaste Urdu diction, will anchor the event. Qadr and Khusrow are among the key office-bearers in the Saudi Arabia chapter of the GUC. Afroz Alam is the president of the council.
The event is by invitation only. For details, call Qadr/Bader Ansari on 0508877185.
