KARACHI, March 21: Urdu poets from different parts of the world will take part in the 21st annual Aalmi mushaira (poetry symposium) being held on Thursday at 9pm in China Ground, Kashmir Road.

Organised by the Sakinan-i-Shehr-i-Quaid, the literary event will bring together poets from across the country as well as from India, the UAE, Canada, the US and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Some of them are Rahat Indori, Wasim Barelvi, Manzar Bhopali, Iqbal Ashar and Popular Meerathi (India), Ahmed Salman Farooqi and Himayat Ali Shaer (Canada) Zahoorul Hasan Javed (the UAE), Mona Shahab (the US) and Umar Saalim (Saudi Arabia). Apart from Karachi’s known literary figures Rasa Chughtai and Sahar Ansari, distinguished poets from other parts of Pakistan (Iftikhar Arif, Kishwar Naheed and Mohsin Changezi) will also recite their poetry.

Speaking to Dawn, one of the event organizers, Afzal Siddiqi said: “We have been organising these mushairas since 1989. All of it began when the sociopolitical situation in Karachi worsened. Unicarians (a Karachi University old boys association) decided that in order to restore normality to the city, literary activities should be arranged on a regular basis, and mushaira was one way of going about it. So the first mushaira, which turned out to be a huge success, was held in 1989. Literary stalwarts like Kaifi Azmi, Akhtarul Iman and Khumar Barabankvi came from India. I think we were able to gather a crowd of 20,000 poetry lovers on that occasion. Ever since only once were we unable to hold the event. Also bear in mind that we do it with reference to Pakistan Day and by remembering the Quaid-i-Azam. Everybody cooperates with us. We believe that if literary activities keep happening, they can lessen the sociopolitical tensions in society.”