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Dr. Sayeed Khan, Ashraf Shad and Javed Nazar during the meeting at Himalaya Restaurant, Granville Sydney

New Unique Organization "Urdu International Australia" Launched in Sydney

A new organization, Urdu International Australia, was launched in Sydney with Uzma Gillani, Dr Sayeed khan, Pervaiz Buttar, Dr Shabbir Haider and Syed Zafar Hussain as its patrons.

The new body aims to create a healthy and harmonic environment for literary and cultural activities and will establish an Urdu library, will publish a quarterly Urdu magazine and will organize Annual Urdu Book Fairs in Australia.

“The Urdu International Australia is here to provide a platform for intellectual discourse and will place the Urdu community of Australia in the Urdu globe of Art and literature,” said Ashraf Shad, the prominent writer and journalist, who called the meeting and proposed the formation of a new body.

Mohtarma Uzma Gillani, Huma Mirza, Kaneez Fatima Kiran and Mrs. Farhat Iqbal

The meeting was held on Sunday,4th May 2014 at Himalaya Restaurant and about 50 people attended including many prominent poets, writers, academics, doctors, and people from IT and other professions.

Ashraf Shad presented a working paper with proposed aims, targets, time frame and also proposed the organizational structure." Urdu International Australia will experiment a new organizational approach as there will be no office bearers and all the activities will be performed through task-based committees,” he said.

The meeting also decided that Urdu International will be a non-religious, non-political and non-profitable organization and its annual report and financial statement will be open for its members.`
The following committees were formed at the meeting:

Patrons’ Committee: Dr Sayeed Khan, Pervaiz Buttar, Dr Shabbir Haider, Uzma Gillani and Syed Zafar Hussain.

Central Executive Committee: Dr Ayesha Saeed, Ashraf Chohan, Tariq Mirza, Zafar Islam, Arshad Saeed, Nadeem Sheikh, Mr Rafiq Chaudhary and Anwar Hussain Ghanchi.

Magazine and Publishing Committee: Dr Abbas Zaidi, Arif Sadiq, Kaneez Fatima, Farida Lakhani and Abbas Sial.

Women’s Working Committee: Farhat Iqbal, Huma Mirza, Ghazala Khan, Dr Yasmeen Shad and Maha Khan.
Communications Committee: Hamid Khan to assist in online activities of UIA.

Coordinator: Ashraf Shad will be the Coordinator and will be ex-officio member
of all committees.

Life Members: Those who announced to become the life members after a one time contribution of $500are (names in alphabetical order): Anwar Hussain Ghanchi, Arif Sadiq, Bashir Malik, Dr Fatima (Yasmeen) Shad, Dr Sayeed Khan, Dr Shabbir Haider, Farhat Iqbal, Javed Nazar, Kaneez Fatima Kiran, Munir Mohammad, Nadeem Sheikh, Pervaiz Buttar, Qaiser Khan, Rafiq Chaudary, Tariq Mirza, Huma Mirza, Uzma Gillani and Syed Zafar Hussain.

Founding Members: The life members will also be the members of the Founding Committee, the supreme body of the Urdu International. Others who accepted the membership of the Founding Committee include (in alphabetical order): Arshad Saeed, Ashraf Chohan, Ashraf Shad, Dr. Ayesha Saeed, Dr.Ishrat Ali, Farida Lakhani, Farjad Mehmood, Hamid Khan, Insaf Ali Khan, Maha Islam, Mohammed Ali (Canberra), Nasim Haider, Reema Omar, Saba Abdi, Syed Mohiuddin (Arif), Dr Abbas Zaidi and Zafar Islam Khan.

The meeting also agreed a monthly ‘nishist’ will be held on the first Sunday of every month and will be open for members and non-members. The next sitting will on Sunday 1 June, 2014 at 3pm and venue to be announced later.

The account is opened in the name of "Urdu International Australia" in the ANZ Bank. Details are: Account name: Urdu International Australia, BSB: 012030, A/C No: 193849261.

Contact: Those who would like to join Urdu International Australia and help in its activities may contact Ashraf Shad at ashrafshad@hotmail.com