Gurmani Center
The Gurmani Center for Languages and Literature (GCLL) was established in 2010 with the generous support of the Gurmani Foundation to promote the study and research of Pakistani languages, including Arabic and Persian. Since its inception, the Center has grown into a leading hub for academic and cultural activities. It has hosted international conferences, published groundbreaking scholarship in the field of vernacular humanities, and offered a diverse range of courses in Pakistani languages.
One of the Center's flagship initiatives is the annual publication of Bunyad, a research journal recognized by the Higher Education Commission (HEC) as one of the top-ranked journals in Urdu studies. Beyond publishing, the GCLL regularly invites artists, poets, calligraphers, and fiction writers to showcase their work and conduct workshops on creative writing, research methodologies, and related themes.
Due to its extensive contributions, the Gurmani Center has become a cornerstone of the vibrant intellectual and artistic life not only on the LUMS campus but also in the broader cultural landscape of Lahore.
New Urdu Fiction | Session II:
A Conversation with Khurshid Hussnain
The Gurmani Centre for Languages and Literature is pleased to announce the second session of its new conversation series on contemporary Pakistani Urdu fiction writers, titled: New Urdu Fiction: A Conversation with Khurshid Hussnain.
This session will engage with Khurshid Hussnain’s latest novel, Manẓar ek Bulandī sē, and aims to explore the thematic and narrative concerns that define his fiction. The discussion will also open a broader conversation on emerging trends, narrative experimentation, and critical questions in New Urdu Fiction.
Manẓar ek Bulandī sē is a reflective and formally layered work that engages with questions of perception, memory, and social experience. The story unfolds through a narrative that moves between interior reflection and outward observation, allowing everyday social realities, life, and its moral, emotional, and intellectual tensions to be seen from a contemplative distance.
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About the Author:
Khurshid Hasanain is an Urdu fiction writer and poet with a long-standing engagement with literary and progressive intellectual traditions. He has published short stories in leading Urdu literary journals, and his collection of Urdu poetry, Kinār-e-Āb kā Khwāb, was published in 2022. Manzar ek Bulandī sē is his first novel. He was actively involved in student politics in the mid-1970s and has maintained a long association with the Progressive Writers’ Movement. Professionally, he served as Professor of Physics, Dean of Science, and Project Director of Nanophysics at Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad. For several years, he also served as an Advisor at COMSTECH, the OIC Ministerial Standing Committee on Science and Technology.
The session will be moderated by Arshad Waheed, who will guide the conversation with the author, and will feature critical remarks by Muhammad Naeem Virk, who will engage with the novel and situate it within the evolving landscape of Urdu fiction.
Event Details:
Date: Friday, January 30, 2026
Time: 6:00–8:00 pm
Venue: Auditorium A-11, Academic Block
Registration: https://forms.gle/rjtrVGsYEydHXDfw5
Arshad Waheed is a Pakistani novelist, translator, and literary critic who writes in both English and Urdu, with a body of work that bridges contemporary fiction, translation, and critical discourse. He is the author of the award-winning English novel Other Days (Best English Novel, Pakistan Academy of Letters, 2022) and the acclaimed Urdu novel Gumaan. His major Urdu translations include Milan Kundera’s The Art of the Novel and Immortality, and Gabriel García Márquez’s Love in the Time of Cholera, which received the Parveen Shakir Trust Award. Waheed has contributed extensively to national literary journals and newspapers, served as guest editor of Pakistani Literature (Pakistan Academy of Letters), hosted the television talk show Art With World, and conducted creative writing workshops.
Muhammad Naeem Virk teaches at the University of the Punjab, Lahore. He also serves as the Coordinator of the MPhil Urdu program and the editor of the research journals Bāzyāft and Tahqīq. His areas of academic interest include Urdu fiction, social theory, cultural studies, and postcolonialism, and he approaches literature as a form of cultural activity. Currently, he is engaged in reinterpreting modern Urdu literature through the lens of spatial criticism. He has authored five scholarly books to date, including Urdu Novel aur Istama’ārīyat (2017), Urdu Novel ka Saqāfati Mutāla‘a (2019), and Urdu Novel: Kalāmiyah aur Istama’rī Tamīriyat (2025) in the category of research; Nobel Khutbāt: Ma‘āshiyāt (2018) in translation; and Surat-e-Hāl by Shad Azimabadi (2022) as an edited work.
We look forward to your participation.