HYDERABAD, April 27: The second Hyderabad Aalami Mushaira was held at the Nursery Park, Latifabad-6 on Thursday night under the aegis of the district government and the Sindh department of culture, tourism and social welfare.

Noted poets from different parts of the country, India, America and Australia kept the audience enthralled up to 4.30am Friday morning.

Academy of Letters chairman Iftikhar Arif presided over the Mushaira and Sindh Minister for Culture and Tourism Abdul Rauf Siddiqui was the chief guest. A large number people, including women, attended the event.

Those who recited verses included Iftikhar Arif, Amjad Islam Amjad, Khalid Aleeg, Fatima Hasan, Sahar Ansari, Raghib Muradabadi, Manzar Ayoobi, Inayat Ali Khan, Ather Shah Khan, Khalish Muzaffar, Rashid Noor, Arif Shafiq, Shahida Hasan and Rauf Siddiqui. Inayat Baloch, Taj Joyo, Parwano Bhatti and Dr Nawaz Ali Shouq presented Sindhi poetry.

The Indian poets included Bekal Utsahi, Popular Meerathi, Ashok Chakrawarti, Nuzhat Anjum, Anwar Jalalpuri, Mairaj Faizabadi, Dixit Dagori, Noshad Momin and Saliheen. Talat Isharat and Shoukat Fehmi from America also recited their latest poetry.

The subjects of most of the verses were current affairs of Pakistan, cricket, love and poverty.An unpleasant situation was created when a poet recited a couplet about an imaginary meeting between President Gen Pervez Musharraf and PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto. A couple of Sindhi poets took strong exception to the couplet. Rauf Siddiqui came on the mike and said that such couplets should not be recited as they were likely to hurt sensibilities of people.

The poet said that the couplet had been taken in wrong sense and added that he would never read it again.

Speaking on the occasion, Rauf Siddiqui said that those nations which did not respect their intellectuals, poets and writers were forgotten by history.

He said Mushairas were an integral part of their culture, went a long way in promoting literary activities and helped create the atmosphere of peace and brotherhood.He said for quite sometime, Mushairas and literary activities had been ignored by official quarters but now not only the provincial government but also the district governments were doing their best to promote literary activities.

Hyderabad District Nazim Kanwar Naveed Jamil also spoke on the occasion.