KARACHI: Four-day 18th Urdu Conference, tagged “Celebration of Pakistan” started Thursday at the Arts Council of Pakistan. The opening ceremony was attended by the special guest Sindh Governor Kamran Khan Tessori and Arts Council President Muhammad Ahmed Shah warmly welcomed all the guests.
The opening ceremony began with the recitation of the Holy Quran and the playing of the national anthem, while a show reel made on the World Urdu Conference was presented.
A large number of people, including young students, were present in the hall at the “18th World Urdu Conference 2025. Celebration of Pakistan.”
On this occasion, Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s birthday and Christmas cakes were also cut.
The inaugural session was attended by renowned poets Iftikhar Arif, Asad Muhammad Khan, Pirzada Qasim Raza Siddiqui, Noor-ul-Hadi Shah, Mustafa Qureshi, Tariq Rafi, Asghar Nadeem Syed, Hafeez Khan, Sarwat Mohiuddin, Ijaz Farooqi, Huma Mir, Nasir Abbas Nayyar, Yousuf Khushk, Mazhar Abbas, Munawwar Saeed, Ghazi Salahuddin and renowned journalist Sohail Warraich.
Arts Council President Muhammad Ahmed Shah delivered the welcome address, while renowned writer and critic Nasir Abbas Nayyar delivered the keynote address. Ms. Huma Mir conducted the event. This year, the theme of the 18th World Urdu Conference has been “Celebration of Pakistan”.
On this occasion, the auditorium echoed with slogans of Pakistan Zindabad.
Addressing the inaugural ceremony, Sindh Governor Kamran Khan Tessori said that Karachi city is called Mini Pakistan, the soul of Mini Pakistan is the Arts Council. The person who put the soul in the Arts Council is Ahmed Shah.
The World Urdu Conference has started connecting everyone. Urdu is the language of communication.
“We are proud that Urdu is the language of this region, 15 to 16 crore people speak Urdu in this country. In this four-day World Urdu Conference, Seraiki, Pashto, Kashmiri and other languages are spoken.
Over last eighteen years, Ahmed Shah has made it a strong event. The Arts Council has decorated the World Culture Festival.
The festival was not only for Pakistan but also for 142 countries. 2025 is coming to an end.
The Governor congratulated the nation on 149th birthday of the father of the nation Quaid-e-Azam and also on Christmas to the Christian community , especially living in Pakistan.
President of the Arts Council Muhammad Ahmed Shah thanked everyone in the welcome address and said that the Urdu Conference is a galaxy.
Pakistani writers, poets, artists and actors are all gathered here. When I came 20-25 years ago, there was no such institution in this city.
After the partition, all the great people of literature, music and arts came here. Migration from all over Pakistan happened, but unfortunately there was no institution that promoted literature and culture.
He recalled the services of Mushtaq Ahmed Yousufi, Fatima Surraiya Bajia, Jamiluddin Aali, Jamil Jalibi, Aslam Farrukhi, Farman Fatehpuri Sahib.
Every great writer of India participated in this conference. Dr. Ziaul Hassan and his wife Hamida Shaheen were responsible for taking Shamim Hanafi, Gopichand Narang, Shamsur Rahman Farooqi, Khaliq Anjum, Shahid Takhwari, Shahzad Ahmed, Afzal Qazi and all the other poets who came from the Wagah border, first taking them home and then bringing them here.
They would bring Intizar Hussain, Abdullah Hussain, Hamid Akhtar, Nasir Kazmi, Salim Akhtar Sahib with them. All of them are the shining lights of our society. We are also holding sessions on the centenary of Jamiluddin Aali and Intizar Hussain.
“We are an institution of art and culture. We are celebrating all those people who have done their part and left. This includes painters, musicians, singers, film actors and directors. From Salim-ul-Zaman Siddiqui to Sadequeen, from Zahoor-ul-Akhlaq to Shakir Ali, from Anwar Jalal Shamza to Callen David. Those who came to this country or were residents here took this art forward. This conference is a tribute to all of them. Pirzada Qasim Raza Siddiqui, Iftikhar Arif, Professor Sahar Ansari, Fatima Hassan and many others have been with us since the beginning.
When we started the Urdu Conference, we did not have a single rupee. Then it became the biggest conference that lasted for seven days. People came from all over the world, the residents of Karachi opened their doors, hosted them in their homes, some stayed in the hostels of Karachi University, and the people of Karachi bought tickets for some.
The entire city came together to lay the foundation for such a big conference in the world. There was no building or funding here, but everyone had a passion. Nabi Bakhsh Baloch, Shamir Al-Haidari, Dr. Sirajul Haq Memon, Agha Sahib, all the living people came here. Sobhogyan Chandani and Hajra Masroor were with us in our first conference.
We took up the cause of the Urdu conference at a time when the fire of hatred was burning in the city and hundreds of people were being killed. Then we thought that there should be someone who would talk about love.
There is a lot of power in the sword and gun, it can shoot you, but the power of literature, songs, arts, and the tune of the sitar definitely has an impact after a while, but it lasts for a long time.
He said today, Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s It is the day of birth, unite on three things, fight on everything, Pakistan, the flag of Pakistan and the founder of Pakistan, Muhammad Ali Jinnah.
Today is also Christmas day, we also wish Christmas to our Christian brothers, today is the day of renewal of the pledge of allegiance, when we are celebrating, how can we forget those who made sacrifices including Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Liaquat Ali Khan, Allama Iqbal, I want to tell people through the media that this conference is a celebration of your culture and literature, I must participate in it, this conference is now the Commonwealth, this is a conference of those who love literature, take your children with you. Come.
Renowned poet Iftikhar Arif said that the Arts Council invites people speaking all languages of Pakistan including Urdu to the Urdu Conference.
I have been coming here for eighteen years. Writers of all languages come here and enhance the tradition of dialogue. It is not possible for anyone who loves their mother tongue not to love the mother tongue of others.
This is our need and importance. No one has suffered more than us on this language issue. Now we should think, understand and reflect. Renowned writer and critic Nasir Abbas Nayyar said in his keynote address that literature not only creates new forms, new styles, new topics, new languages, it also creates new places. If literature cannot create a new era, it gives a sense of the weariness and obsolescence of the old era. In such a situation, literature and the arts are the only people who come to help.
There are two types of fire: that of others and that of one’s own. A few days ago, Ahmed Shah organized a World Culture Festival and created a new place. It is called the Global Culture Festival. It can be called Dialogic Space, a place where the arts of theater, film, painting, music, and dance from more than a hundred countries of the world come together.
Literature and the arts undoubtedly have their own locality and local identity, but their conversation also takes place with the whole world. Literature is both a tree and a bird. Our literature needs a global dialogic space, he said.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
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