5th Aalmi Urdu Conference 2012
The 5th Aalmi Urdu Conference was started on Thursday with a theme that languages cannot be confined to boundaries and hence there is no need to label Urdu literature as Pakistani or Hindustani.
A large number of literary figures and supporters of Urdu attended the inaugural day of the four-day conference, organised by the Arts Council of Pakistan, The Express Tribune reported.
Arts Council President Muhammad Ali Shah said that the large turnout in such conferences prove that the council was still alive and working to promote the language.
Along with the keynote speakers—leading Urdu literary critic from India Shamim Hanfi and Pakistani Urdu fiction writer Intizar Hussain—Aslam Farrukhi, Dr Pirzada Qasim Raza Siddiqui, Himayat Ali Shair, Fatima Surayya Bajia, Saeed Naqvi (USA) and Durmush Bilger (Turkey) also attended the conference.
The 5th Urdu Conference starts from today in the premises of the Karachi Arts Council to pay tribute to the language, a bonding force that has been keeping people belonging to different religions, castes, ethnic groups and sects together in the Indian subcontinent for centuries.
More than two dozen writers, poets and critics of high merit along with literature buffs will be filling the council’s auditorium today at 3 pm in the inaugural session.President KAC Ahmed Shah told that writers and scholars from India and 20 other parts of the world will be participating in the conference and will present their papers.
Writers, poets, novelists and short story writers of Urdu are participating in the four-day event (6th to 9th Dec).One of the aims of the International Urdu Conference is to pave way for the promotion of Urdu and therefore, the scholars attending the conference would also suggest how to develop this language further and promote it internationally.At the opening ceremony, renowned personalities like Shamim Hanfi, Mushtaq Ahmed Yousfi, Jameel Uddin Aali, Dr. Aslam Farkhi, Intazaar Hussain, Atta Ul Haq Qasmi and many scholars will grace the conference.
The 5th Urdu Conference provides an opportunity for the admirers and students of Urdu to understand the roots of the language and enjoy its different moods by full participation.