PESHAWAR: A visually impaired students stole the show at annual Pashto poetry recitation session of University of Peshawar by presenting his heart touching poem here on Wednesday.

The annual poetry recitation session was organised by Peshawar University Teachers Association (Puta) at Convocation Hall. Around 30 poets from different parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata participated in the poetry session that lasted for more than four hours. Two visually impaired bards and three female poets were among those, who shared their inspiring poetic pieces at the event.

Vice-chancellor Prof Rasul Jan in his opening speech said that poets being a precious asset, imparted a rare education on variety of issues. He said that administration would extend its all out support for healthy literary activities on the campus.

Prof Rasul Jan advised the students to take down the message of the poetry and try to understand it. “There is no shortage of funds for arranging such literary events. Pashto Academy and Pashto department should also come forward in this regard,” he added.

A large of students, teachers and poetry lovers attended the annual mushaira. The convocation hall echoed with beautiful couplets of the poets after a long time. Noted poet Rahmat Shah Sail presided over the event while Zarnosh Shahab chief guest on the occasion.

Mr Sail urged students to spare time for participating in such activities as those would help to nourish their creative talent. “Poets have a deep vision about their surroundings and tell us about any event around us,” he claimed.

Habib Nawaz, a visually impaired poet and doctorate student, stole the show by reading out his poem while Samina Qadir, another poet, too received round of applause from the jam-packed hall for her poem on honour killing.

Zafar Khan, a humorist poet, as usual rolled the audience with his hilarious Pashto haikus.

Nageena Khan Afridi, a young student, told Dawn that poetry session helped refreshed her and her other colleagues and gave a relief after a long hectic study session. She said that students rarely got enough time to participate in such functions.

“We are thankful to Puta for providing us with an opportunity. We did enjoy the event as poets entertained us along with enlightenment,” said Ms Afridi.

Mumtaz Wazir, a student from South Waziristan, said that it was the sole responsibility of the university administration to provide students with healthy activities so that they could benefit themselves along with entertainment.

Puta president Jameel Chitrali in his remarks said that young students wanted to see literary and cultural activities being enacted on the campus. He said that student’s hours long sitting showed that they had penchant for participating in positive activities.

Mr Chitrali said that such activities could not only counter terrorism but also send a strong message to militants, who wanted to spread despondency through their terror activities. He announced that poetic pieces read out on the occasion would be published in a book form under the auspices of Puta.

Afsar Afghan, Iqbal Shakir, Nawaz Khan Yousafzai, Shahid Ali, Nasir Ameen, Prof Sher Zaman Seemab, Fitrat Buneri and Jalal Khalil were among noted poets.

Published in Dawn November 17th, 2016