Humaira Rehman says:

Kisi bhee sane,he ke muntazir reh,ne lage heiN
Ye ham taareekh ke kis mod par rehne lage heiN

Purani ek hijrat ke taqa,azouN ke mutabiq
Musafir umr saari dar-ba-dar reh-ne lage heiN

Nasim Farogh says:

Kab-tak-Aazaadi-ki qeemat ham adaa karte raheiN
Aur sadqa kitni naslouN kaa utara jaega

Khatm kardo naf-ra-touN ko, warna mit gaega sab
Surkh ho jaaega parcham, chand-tara jaega

Perhaps, Sarfraz Abd also hints to the same situation:

Kitni nas,louN ka khoon baqi hai
Qarz hijrat ka kab adaa hoga

Interestingly, when Sarfraz Abd recited the following ghazal, it refreshed my memories of a Dubai mushaira where he had amused the audience with his melodious voice:

Sabza ZaroN me jaa ke kiya hoga
Zakhm-e-dil aur bhee hara hoga

Aaj izhaar-e-mudda’a hoga
Jaan jaegee aur kiya hoga

I will digress here to recall that the late Salim Jafri was the one who started the mushaira craze abroad in the 1980s. He brought famous Indian and Pakistani poets to Dubai and introduced to Gulf audiences the old tradition of mushaira. The Dubai mushairas soon became the rage and mushaira-mania spread from there. When Salim Jafri died in 1997, the Dubai mushairas died with him. There was no one after him who was able to organize them with his inimitable style. I watched Salim Jafri’s mushairas keenly from Kuwait where I was working for electronic and print media.

Going back to Sarfraz Abd, his following verses touched the audience:

Who kis ke dar pe heiN sajda guzar kiya ma’loom
Jo muntazir heiN mere khoon se wazu ke liye

Aur aaj ke mufti-o-waaiz se jo suntan houN khitab
Dastras-se meri Islam nikal ja-ta hai        Continued on next page