THE moment Dr Saleem Mazhar stepped down from the stage, something remarkable happened. The audience, their eyes moist, began reciting together. This was at an Iqbal Conference organised by Pakistan’s National Language Promotion Department. The two-day event brought together diplomats from Iran, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Russia, vice-chancellors of twelve universities and Iqbal scholars from across Pakistan. Barrister Waleed Iqbal, son of Justice Javed Iqbal and grandson of the Poet of the East, attended and delivered an address.

Waleed recalled visiting Delhi University, where the head of its Urdu Department had gathered teachers and lovers of literature. Participants took turns reciting poetry. When the department head’s turn came, he recited Iqbal’s prayer: (Lab pe ati hai ban k tamanna meri, zindagi shamma ki surat ho Khudaya meri).“My longing rises to my lips as a prayer; O God, make my life like a candle’s flame.” He said he had read Wali Dakhni, Ghalib and many other great poets. Yet, in his opinion, no better verses had ever been written than these lines by Iqbal. This poem teaches knowledge, action, love of the homeland and service to the poor: values capable of transforming society into a model of paradise.

Waleed then shared an episode from the PTI government. The Delhi experience had........

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