Four-day Urdu moot kicks off in Karachi

Sindh CM pledges support to ACP to organise literary events anywhere in the country

KARACHI:

The four-day 15th International Urdu Conference has kicked off at the Arts Council of Pakistan (ACP), Karachi, on Thursday. A large number of literary figures from across the country as well as from around the world are attending the conference.

Addressing the inaugural session, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah said, "Karachi is the cultural centre and the provincial government is ready to extend every possible support to the ACP to organise cultural events anywhere in the country."

He further said, "Sindh is the land of Sufis and recognised as Bab-ul-Islam. Sindh was first that passed the resolution in favour of Pakistan."

Speaking on the occasion, Sindh Minister for Education, Culture, Tourism and Antiquities, Syed Sardar Ali Shah said that Sindh has always been the land of art and culture.

Explaining the value of cultural activities, the minister said, "Art, education and literature make a man perfect."

The ACP President Mohammad Ahmed Shah announced the ACP will organise the first Pakistan Literature Festival in Gwadar from January 13 to 15, adding that same kind of events will also be held in Lahore, Islamabad, Peshawar, Gilgit-Baltistan as well as in America, Canada and other countries. "Sindh always leads in cultural activities," Shah said. 

Dr Alex Bellem from Aga Khan University, said that the language landscape of Pakistan was very rich. "Most of the people speak more than one languages," Dr Alex mentioned.

Sharing the value of languages, Dr Alex said that there were about 6,800 spoken languages in the world. "Half of them are in danger and may have disappeared." Dr Alex said that the language connects people.

Renowned writer Anwar Maqsood and Dr Nasir Abbas also addressed the session. Zahra Naigh, said that it is a pleasure to see all and sometimes she wonders if this city can show such a beautiful scene. Pakistan is suffering from various problems these days, but the common man cannot understand these problems. Holding the Urdu conference in the midst of rising inflation is a brave act, she said.

Read more: ACP to organise World Urdu Conference

Zia Mohiuddin mesmerized the audience with his oration in the session Urdu Ka Shahkar Adab. Meanwhile, in the session titled Iqbal and Qaum Justice (Retd) Nasira Iqbal said, "We have to adopt the ideology that Iqbal gave us to rise up as a nation. Unfortunately, we have forgotten the lesson of Khudi that Iqbal taught us and our self-respect has become doubtful."

Tehseen Firaqi said that two-thirds of Iqbal's writings are in Persian language and we do not understand Persian. He said that if we had understood the philosophy of Iqbal and made it our guiding principle, our nation would not have to beg from the whole world. Sohail Umar said that Iqbal felt the pain of his nation and wanted to improve its political, social, moral and economic conditions.

Ayaz Farid and Abu Muhamamd Qawal enthralled the audience in the evening.