PESHAWAR: The Peshawar chapter of Halqa-i-Arbab-i-Zauq organised an Eid Melan Urdu poetry recitation session at a local hotel here on Wednesday.

Urdu poets hailing from Peshawar and other parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa attended the event and recited their inspiring poetic pieces.

Most bards versified the current political and social issues in their poems while few young poets also turned to romantic expressions, which were appreciated by the audience.

Halqa-i-Arbab-i-Zauq conducts Eid Milan poetry recitation session

Syed Zubair Shah, a young fictionist and poet from Swabi, stole the show by reciting a beautiful romantic poem. In his brief talk, he said that Halqa’s literary circles were not confined to Urdu alone but provided a forum to young poets and writers speaking Pashto, Hindko, Seraiki and Chitrali.

Aziz Ejaz, a senior poet who chaired the event, said that it was encouraging that a good taste was being developed over the years in the region for Urdu literature. He said that since its inception in 1957, Halqa-i-Arab-i-Zauq Peshawar chapter had groomed up many noted poets and writers, whose mother tongue was not Urdu. “I have been associated with Halqa-i-Arab-i-Zauq for the last over four decades and I have learnt much from this humble gathering of the blessed souls. Such gathering does have a social impact,” said Mr Ejaz.

Shakeel Ahmad Nayab, chief of Halqa-i-Arab-i-Zauq Peshawar chapter said that owing to its widespread popularity and impact, his colleagues were compelled to open sub-branches of the literary body in Swat, Chitral and Dir in the start of the current year.

He said that only 30 to 40 members of Halqa turned up at its weekly literary sessions in Peshawar but its online members had exceeded 40,000.

Nasir Ali Syed said that they had planned to open more sub-branches in other districts of the province. He said that so far requests from Dera Ismail Khan, Bannu, Kohat and Mardan had been received for opening sub-branches of Halqa. Akbar Marwat, Dr Baharullah Khan, Salim Bangash, Dr Sagheer, Dr Noor Haikm Jilan, Iqbal Sikander, Qari Shahid Azam Alazhari, Akhtar Mohammad Seemab, Sabir Hiran, Mohammad Naeem Yousafzai and Nishat Sarhadi attended the event. Next session of Halqa-i- Arbab-i-Zauq would be held on the coming Tuesday at the Urdu Science Board Library Hall at Khyber Bazaar.

Published in Dawn, June 28th, 2018