Karachi: The second day of International Urdu Conference at Arts Council of Pakistan started with a session titled ‘Urdu Poetry: Old and New Creative Dimensions’ on Friday. The session was chaired by famous poets Iftikhar Arif, Imdad Hussain, Jazib Qurashi, Afzal Ahmed Syed and Basir Kazmi from the United Kingdom (UK). Famous researcher, translator and professor from India Najma Rahmani read her paper ‘The contemporary Urdu poetry scene’ during the session. She said that modern generation had all the sense of modernism and Urdu Ghazal had come out from the 70’s time and was changing tremendously. “New poetry is coming up with the needs and demands of time,” she read. She added that love and politics were famous aspects of Urdu poetry and it had new dimensions now. “Now we have determined that we cannot separate poetry from politics,” she concluded. Famous poet Tanveer Anjam read his paper titled ‘Modern poetry and feminine sense’. He said that modernism was old now and women had a different experience of life than men but taking both on the same level was a feminine sense. He said that in the last decade of the 18th century, Zahid Khatoon Shervani was the first poetess of modern feminism. He said that modern poetry had opened new doors for women and they expressed their rebellion through poetry. “Kishwar Naheed, Zehra Nigah is the representative of modern feminism in Urdu poetry. The famous poem of Kishwar Naheed ‘We sinful ladies’ is highlighting this aspect. He said that Fahmida Riazwas a class of her own in the realm of Urdu poetry. Famous poet and researcher Zia Ul Hassan presented his paper on ‘Effects of Ghalib on modern Ghazal’. He said that Iqbal took a lot from Ghalib. He recognised Noon Meem Rashid in Urdu poetry and said that Ahmed Afzal Syed was the last representative of Ghalib inspired poetry. Critic Shadab Ahsani presented his paper on ‘poetry and our society’ during the session. He said thatwhat English and Urdu literature hadin common was that both did not have a country but English was the language of the oppressors and Urdu was the language of the convicted ones. He said that literature was being published in Pakistan, but it could not be truly called Pakistani literature. Famous poet Saba Ikramalso presented his paper on ‘Some important names in the modern Urdu poem in Pakistan’. He said that many things had changed since 60’s to now. “We have many famous names in the Urdu poem including Saleem Rahaman, Kishwar Naheed, Ifzal Syed, FahmidaRiaz, TanveerAnjum, Anwar San Roy, Syed Kashif Raza, ShabbirNazim, SaleemShahzad, Azra Abbas, Saadat Saeed, Saleem Aagah Qazlabash, Raees Farogh, Ali Muhammad Farshi, Mubeen Mirza, Ayub Khawar, Iqtadar Javed, Sahar Ansari, Zahra Nigah, Pirzada Qasim Jazib Qurashi, Muslim Shamim and many others,” he shared. Writer Yasmeen also presented her paper titled ‘The concept of old and new dimensions of creative poetry’. She argued that it was impossible to cover the subject because the creativity itself was a complex phenomenon. “We need to see poem and Ghazal differently. Urdu poem is changing from the sensation to reality,” she said. Published in Daily Times, November 24th 2018.