KARACHI, April 20: The annual Aalmi Mushaira is scheduled to be held at the Federal Urdu University’s Gulshan-i-Iqbal Campus at 10pm on Saturday in which a large number of well-known poets, including nine poets from India, will participate, organizers said on Friday.

Sakinan-i-Shahr-i-Quaid, which has been organizing the event for the past 18 years in Karachi, invited the citizens to attend the event where special parking arrangements have been made in a ground adjacent to the university.

The Alami Mushaira, which was earlier postponed by the rains in March, was held at the National Stadium in the past.

The Indian poets expected to participate in the event include Bekal Utsahi, Munawwar Rana, Ashok Chakardhar, Raees Ansari, Mairaj Faizabadi, Bhuneshwar Prasad (Dixit), Popular Mirathi, Nuzhat Anjum and Naushad Ali Ansari.

Syed Mohammad Hanif Akhgar, Masroor Javed and Talat Isharat will come from the United States and Umer Salim-al-Eedros from Saudi Arabia to present their poetry.

From cities other than Karachi the poets who are expected to join the event include Shahzad Ahmed and Taimur Ahsan from Lahore, Saima Ali and Mohammad Izharul Haq from Islamabad, Dr Aasi Karnali from Multan, Mohsin Changezi from Quetta and Professor Inayat Ali Khan and Imdad Hussaini from Hyderabad.

The poets from Karachi who are invited to present their poetry at the event include Raghib Muradabadi, Jamiluddin Aali, Shabnam Romani, Sarshar Siddiqui, Mehmood Sham, Dr Pirzada Qasim, Sehar Ansari, Ejaz Rehmani, Gulnar Aafreen, Athar Shah Khan (Jaidi), Hasan Akbar Kamal, Sarwar Javed, Nikhat Barelvi, Mairaj Jami, Hijab Abbasi and Yad Siddiqui.

The organisers of the Mushaira held a press conference at the Karachi Press Club to shed light on the arrangements made for the programme. Federal Housing and Works Minister Syed Safwanullah, a founding member of the Sakinan-i-Shahr-i-Quaid, said a tiny sapling that he and his friends had planted 18 years ago had grown up and helped revive the culture of Karachi.

“Such events have become our identity,” he said.

Azhar Abbas Hashmi, chief coordinator of the programme, said over 300 poets from Pakistan and elsewhere had attended the Aalmi mushaira since it started and included the literary stalwarts like Ali Sardar Jafri and Kaifi Aazmi.