Bilal Ahmed is a journalist working at The News's Karachi Desk. He occasionally covers culture and art.
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February 28, 2025
‘Upcoming master plan for Karachi may fail like several previous ones’
A general aerial view of a commercial district in Karachi. — AFP/FileThe upcoming master plan for Karachi that is being devised under the title...
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January 30, 2025
Why Ghalib is the most quotable poet of Urdu, explains scholar Dr Khursheed Rizvi
Linguist, poet, critic and scholar of Arabic literature Dr Khursheed Rizvi seen in this image. — Facebook@KhursheedRizviOfficial/File Ghalib is...
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December 11, 2024
‘Despite all his greatness, Bedil not known in his native India’
A portrait of Abdul Qadir Bedil, a poet from the subcontinent . — libertybooks/FileAbdul Qadir Bedil is the most unfortunate poet of the...
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November 18, 2024
Bedil — The great poet who fascinated Iqbal and Ghalib
A interior view of the Bedil Library in Sharfabad, Karachi on May 17, 2024. — Facebook@Bedil LibraryBedil, along with Saib Tabrezi, laid the...
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October 24, 2024
British theatre comes to life in Karachi with Shakespeare’s Fool
Actors perform at the Arts Council of Pakistan in Karachi on October 23, 2024. — Facebook@ACPKHIFor theatre enthusiasts in Karachi, experiencing a...
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October 22, 2024
A mockery of psychoanalysis
A representational image showing an aerial view of Arts Council of Pakistan’s building in Karachi . — Facebook/@ACPKHI/FileThe writer-director...
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October 18, 2024
Literature enthusiasts explore four milestone European plays
A representational image showing an aerial view of Arts Council of Pakistan’s building in Karachi . — Facebook/@ACPKHI/FileLiterature...
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October 16, 2024
Chaturaee — A tragic tale of polygamy wrapped in comedy
Actors perform a scene during the performance of the ‘Chaturaee’ play at the Arts Council of Pakistan, Karachi on October 15, 2024. —...
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October 15, 2024
Peerzada Salman explores personal reflections in ‘Hamlet Ki Khudkalami’
Journalist and art critic Peerzada Salman speaks on a stage production ‘Hamlet Ki Khudkalami’ organised by the Arts Council of Pakistan on...
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October 10, 2024
Arts Council commemorates Mustafa Zaidi
An undated image of poet Mustafa Zaidi . — Raza Rumi's website/FileThe Arts Council of Pakistan on Wednesday evening paid rich tribute to Mustafa...
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October 09, 2024
Graduating ACP theatre students enthral audience in ‘Clue’
Actors perform a scene during the performance of ‘Clue’ at the Arts Council of Pakistan, Karachi on October 8, 2024. — Facebook/Arts Council...
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September 20, 2024
Drawing parallels between theatre and politics
Javed Jabbar, author and former senator and federal minister speaks at an event. — X/@javedjabbar45/FileTheatre and politics have always had a...
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September 15, 2024
The man who proved he doesn’t belong behind the scenes
Farhan Alam Siddiqui recieving a shield from then caretaker Sindh chief minister Maqbool Baqar in the concluding ceremony of the Karachi Theatre...
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July 06, 2024
An evening with a Pakistani classical music instrument
This picture shows a view of the NAPA on December 19, 2022. — Facebook/NAPA - National Academy of Performing ArtsThe National Academy of...
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June 28, 2024
‘Renovating a historical site is not as challenging as bringing it into reuse’
Director General Walled City of Lahore Authority, Kamran Lashari gestures while speaking an event on June 15, 2024. — Facebook/Pakistan Tourism...
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June 04, 2024
Talk highlights Sindh govt’s apathy towards climate change, environment
Flood affectees can be seen walking through floodwaters in Sindh after devastating floods. — AFP/FileAmong the Sindh government’s various...
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May 07, 2024
‘No one beats Ghalib in our tradition when it comes to provoking thinking through poetry’
Dr Anjum Altaf, author, economist and the first provost of the Habib University. — Facebook/Habib University/FilePoets like Ghalib are...
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April 14, 2024
‘Art of calligraphy will never decline in Pakistan due to Holy Quran’
Calligrapher Naveed Maroof teaches calligraphy to his students in Karachi. — Printed in The News/FileAt around 11am on Saturday morning at a...
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March 04, 2024
Music conference concludes with beautiful performances
A child performer sings music at All Pakistan Music Conference in Karachi on May 23, 2023. — Facebook/The All Pakistan Music Conference...
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March 03, 2024
APMC provides platform to schoolchildren learning classical music
View of National Museum of Pakistan building image released on September 27, 2022. — Facebook/National Museum of Pakistan KarachiThe second day of...
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March 02, 2024
‘Future of classical music seems not so bright even in India’
The image is a poster of ‘Rasan Piya’, a documentary by Niharika Popli, an Indian documentary filmmaker about classical vocalist Ustad Abdul...
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February 22, 2024
Repeatedly touted as a boon, are flyovers the bane of Karachiites?
Since the authorities are not accustomed to hard thinking, they often go for the solution of constructing a flyover to solve traffic congestion in...
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February 17, 2024
National Poem Project Pakistan winners to be invited to Kennedy Centre to recite their poems
Submissions have begun for the National Poem Project Pakistan that will culminate in November with the announcement of the Pakistan’s first-ever...
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February 16, 2024
Dr Rauf Parekh explains why Ghalib continues to be extensively studied by literary scholars
Much of Ghalib’s poetry is not easy to grasp, due to which the poet has been extensively studied by critics and literary scholars from his time...
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February 04, 2024
Talk on Urdu poetry maestros with Raag Bageshri
Continuing with the lecture series to celebrate the 25 years of the Mohatta Palace Museum, the museum administration on Saturday held an interesting...
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January 28, 2024
Veteran journalist Nadir Shah Adil passes away
Veteran journalist Nadir Shah Adil passed away in Karachi on Saturday. He had been bedridden for some time due to illnesses. Veteran...
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December 29, 2023
Website, app launched to digitise Urdu in Nastaleeq font
The development of website www.dastaan.io and its corresponding mobile phone Android app, which can convert images of printed Urdu text in the...
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December 22, 2023
Musicologist SM Shahid launches another book on classical music
The National Academy of Performing Arts on Thursday hosted a musical event to launch a book on classical musicians ‘Great Masters Pakistani...
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October 22, 2023
An evening of chamber music performed by German band
Performers are performing music of German instrumentalists under the band Ensemble 4.1, who played chamber music compositions by Beethoven and...
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October 09, 2023
42pc of Iqbal’s Urdu poetry never made it to his books: Dr Taqi Abedi
As one would expect from literary scholar and poet Dr Taqi Abedi, his speech on Allama Iqbal was a treat for every knowledge seeker in attendance at...
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October 07, 2023
An allegory of gang-infested Karachi
A short thriller was staged on Friday at the Arts Council of Pakistan where the Pakistan Theatre Festival is under way till Sunday, October 8.Titled...
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October 02, 2023
Two middle-aged people find love at a sanatorium
The setting of a sanatorium in a play likely signifies a tragedy. However, it turned out differently in the case of ‘Shaam Bhi Thi Dhuan Dhuan’,...
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October 01, 2023
Arshad Mahmud launches digital platform to present romantic music, ghazal
After several years of working on a project to engage with budding talents for the creation of music through beautiful poetry with meeting the...
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September 26, 2023
A poignant account of love brought to life on stage
Finding the recitation of Qudratullah Shahab’s piece Chandravati from his well-known autobiography Shahabnama in the programme of the Pakistan...
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September 25, 2023
Back-to-back comedies amuse audience at Pakistan Theatre Festival
The Pakistan Theatre Festival treated the audience to a laughter fest on Sunday by staging two comedies. The first one was ‘Gadha Mandi’, which...
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September 24, 2023
Lafziati Mabahis solves mysteries of many Urdu words
Lexicographer and literary scholar Dr Rauf Parekh has indeed done a service by compiling his articles on various aspects of Urdu morphology ...
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September 18, 2023
Tessori takes inspiration from Mughal emperor to address public grievances
Legend has it that Mughal Emperor Jehangir had installed a chain with a bell outside his palace so that anyone with a legitimate grievance could...
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September 17, 2023
Young sitarist casts Jhinjhoti’s spell at APMC event
At the time when the attention span of people has been constantly shrinking, playing Raag Jhinjhoti for over an hour might not have been a wise...
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September 14, 2023
Safe bet of Taleem-e-Balighan pays off at Pakistan Theatre Festival
Throwing Taleem-e-Balighan into the mix of the Pakistan Theatre Festival 2023’s offerings was a safe bet as the play penned by Khawaja Moinuddin...
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September 11, 2023
A hilarious and cathartic take on totalitarian state
Polish playwright Slawomir Mrozek must have written his famous satirical play ‘The Police’ against the backdrop of the communist totalitarianism...
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September 10, 2023
Improvisation theatre entertains audience at ACP festival
It was not with great expectations this scribe entered a studio of the Arts Council on Saturday afternoon to witness an improvisation theatre titled...
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September 09, 2023
‘Largest theatre festival of Pakistan’ kicks off at Arts Council
With a large number of veteran drama artistes, theatre practitioners, foreign dignitaries and government functionaries gracing the occasion, the...
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August 21, 2023
‘New anti-PPP alliance in Sindh may not yield desired results for powers that be’
The union of anti-Pakistan Peoples Party political forces in Sindh, especially Sindhi nationalist groups as well as parties that are considered to...
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August 20, 2023
Ismat Chughtai: The first female rebel of Urdu fiction?
The Arts Council of Pakistan initiated on Saturday a monthly lecture series featuring talks of distinguished writers, poets and critics on literary...
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August 16, 2023
Urban Word all set to bring its poet programme to Pakistan
The Urban Word, a literary organisation in the United States that provides platform to young writers to showcase and develop their talents and is...
