Two-day All-Pakistan Literary Festival (Bayyad-e-Nasir Kazmi) concludes at GCU Lahore

Two-day All-Pakistan Literary Festival (Bayyad-e-Nasir Kazmi) was organized by the Majlis-e-Iqbal of Government College University Lahore on November 12 and 13, 2025. More than three hundred works were received in twenty-seven literary genres from various universities across the country. 

The festival included poetry readings, academic and literary sessions, dialogue series with writers, face-to-face sessions, workshops on various genres of literature, documentary films, Punjabi drama, evening ghazals, and an annual poetry recital. 

On the first day, various competitions, including poetry and recitation, were held at the Bukhari Auditorium from 8 am to 2 pm, in which President of Majlis-e-Iqbal Muhammad Owais took the presidential seat and performed the hosting duties along with General Secretary Mohsin Ali Naqvi. 

Later, a special session titled “These Problems of Pronunciation 2.0” was held with renowned journalist Ms. Mahpara Safdar until 3:00pm. 

Mavra Sitara hosted the session in a eloquent manner and held detailed discussion on her journalistic career as well as the problems of pronunciation. 

At the end of the first day, ghazal evening was organized in which the mesmerizing voices of Ariz Murtaza, Kazim Raza Rizvi, Mohsin Aslam and Bilal Qureshi kept the audience spellbound for a long time. 

Ustad Ghulam Abbas and his son participation in the ghazal event added to the mesmerizing atmosphere of the gathering. The first day ended with a prize distribution ceremony at 6 pm and Punjab University Lahore was declared the winner of the team trophy with the highest positions. The following training sessions also continued at different locations on the first day of the fair. 

In the Fazal-e-Hussain Reading Room, Rana Jabez Ali hosted a session titled “Poetry in Perception and Performance” from 12 noon to 1 pm, followed by an open mic at the same venue at 2 pm. In the Iran Studies Room, former editor of the storyteller Alain Raja guided students on the art of fiction writing. 

The second day was also a great success from beginning to end at the Bukhari Auditorium, where a thought-provoking panel talk titled “This is the topic, let’s talk about it” was held from 9 am to 10 am. 

In which Huzaifa Yousaf, Farooq Pasha, Anas Rehman and Ayesha Musharraf, the best writing students in various genres from GC University Lahore, interacted with Ehsan Janjua and held an in-depth discussion on his poetic journey and classical and contemporary poetry, while Usoh Maryam presented an external point of view. 

The final stage of the Bait Bazi competition was held from 11 to 12 o'clock, in which after a tough competition, Punjab University won the field and the team of MAO College was declared second while the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad was declared third. 

After the Bait Bazi competition, Theater Republic, under the guidance of Farooq Pasha, presented the Punjabi version of its famous play “Waiting for Godot” called “Udek” and this series continued from 11 am to 1 pm. 

Later, from 1 pm to 2 pm, a Nasir Kazmi discussion titled “Aa Ke Manzil Pe Aankh Bhar Aai, Sab Mazha Raftgaan Ne Shin Liya” was held. 

The discussion was moderated by Dr. Saima Iram, while the participants in the discussion included Dr. Khalid Mahmood Sanjrani, Dr. Sajid Ali, and Ehsan Janjua. All the participants had a meaningful conversation on Nasir Kazmi and his culture of sadness. 

The thirty-first face-to-face program was held from 2 to 3 pm, in which renowned poet and playwright Sarmad Sehbai had an excellent conversation with Farooq Pasha and Ali Rashid about his poetic and prose journey. 

The two-day literary festival concluded with the annual poetry recital, which was presided over by Dr. Khurshid Rizvi and conducted by Huzaifa Yousaf. 

The poets included Sarmad Sehbai, Dr. Saadat Saeed, Yasmin Hameed, Saud Usmani, Wajid Amir, Shaheen Abbas, Hammad Niazi, Fahad Mahmood, Ali Qaim Naqvi, Kafeel Rana, Zohaib Alam and Fayyaz Bostan. From the beginning to the end of the poetry session, the Bukhari Auditorium was filled with a wonderful atmosphere filled with applause and appreciation from the appreciative audience.

On the second day, various sessions continued at the Iran Studies Room and the Azerbaijan Center: From 10:00 to 11:00 am, Uswa-e-Maryam hosted a session “You, Yourself, and the Other.” 

From 11:00 to 12:00 pm, a reading circle was held with Sara Tahir Bukhari on Intezar Hussain’s short story “Monkey’s Tale.” 

A session on Bait Bazi and Tath-ul-Lafaz was held from 12 to 1 pm in which students of GC University as well as the three teams of the final stage of the Bait Bazi competition participated, while Mr. Attas Ahmed, Ehsan Janjua and Saif-ur-Rehman Jafar guided the students. 

From 1 to 2 pm, Ahmad Taji hosted a session on “Re-Introduction to Theatre”. While from 2 to 3 pm, Mr. Amir Faraz conducted a training session titled “Majlisi Criticism: Tradition, Observations and Possibilities” at the Iran Studies Room. 

Delivering the closing remarks, the Supervisor of Majlis-e-Iqbal, Dr. Safir Haider thanked the participants, guests and audience from various universities and termed their participation as a success of this literary festival and concluded the two-day Pakistan Literary Festival with this poem by Ahmed Mushtaq.