Professor Zaheer declared best Persian language poet

The government of Iran in a letter has declared the GCU Registrar Professor Dr Zaheer Ahmed Siddiqui as the world best poet of the Persian language. The Persian poetry contest was held in Sheraz, Isfahan & Mashhad, which concluded in Tehran under the title 'Fajar festival.
The festival was participated by renowned Persian language poets from all across the world including Uzbekistan, India, Tajikistan, Lebanon, Pakistan and Afghanistan besides various national level poets of Iran. The notable poets included Mosa Bedaj and Dr Victor Elic of the Lebanon University, Lebanon, Khalid Farogh of Afghanistan, M. Ali Ajmi from Uzbekistan, Hafiz-e-Emani and many other poets of Iran, a spokesman of GCU said here on Friday.
Dr Zaheer Ahmed Siddiqui was among the key note guest poets of the event and was declared the best poet of the festival on account of the deep rooted theme of his poetry on the importance of unity, magnanimity and brotherhood of Islamic world.
Dr Siddiqui is so popular among Iranians that they have decided to publish his recently completed book 'Ganjena-e-Mani' in Iran and the publication expenditures would be borne by the government of Iran. Dr Zaheer Ahmed Siddiqui is the author of 20 different books on philosophy, Persian and Urdu literature and ethics.
It is pertinent to mention here that according to Iranian tradition, clapping is not allowed during the recitation of the poetic verses but the GCU Registrar, according to the Iranian letter, was accorded thunderous applause thrice during the his poetic recitation. He has not only been awarded by the cash prize of Pak Rs 100,000 but also great honour to be chosen as the only participant of the event from Pakistan.
The Vice-chancellor GCU Professor Dr Kahlid Aftab has congratulated the registrar on this remarkable achievement and declared him great asset for the institution. The registrar on this occasion told that Iranian national library has a rich treasure of more than 10 million books out of which seven million are manuscripts and the Iranian government offered him to ask for the copy of any of these books for GCU library and it would be delivered at GCU doorstep.
A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was also signed between GCU and the National Assembly Library of Islamic Republic of Iran for mutual exchange of unique books in the form of their copies.