Celebrating literature

Lahore hosted the first edition of the Pakistan Literature Festival (PLF) from February 10 to 12

Lahore: The recently concluded first edition of the Pakistan Literature Festival (PLF) in Lahore will be remembered for many good reasons. As a rule, it does not happen every day that literature, art and music lovers see leading literary figures of the time under one roof. However, the three-day fair, for example, gathered all kinds of towering figures at one place, and showcased a variety of events blended with literature, music, arts, fun, and so on.

“It’s a conscious effort to put up such a show which has a mix of literature, music as well as performing arts, representing all national and local and folk regimes,” Muhammad Ahmed Shah, Chairman, Pakistan Arts Council said.

Ahmed Shah, the moving spirit behind the PLF, added that the launch of the literary festival from Lahore is also a planned effort as the historical city being the cultural capital of Pakistan should be acknowledged and celebrated with such literary-rich works.

From Lahore, the PLF will move on to Gwadar, followed by Muzaffarbad, Gilgit-Baltistan, Peshawar, Islamabad and Karachi. However, that is not the end as the PLF will then move on to New York, San Francisco, Houston, Dallas and Chicago in June and finally to Toronto in July.

Lahore hosted the PLF from February 10 to 12 with jam-packed sessions from morning till night. The three days of the PLF offered healthy debates on contemporary, previous and future trends of politics, poetry, arts and literature.

The festival opened on Friday noon at the Alhamra lawns in front of an energetic, responsive crowd. Besides a number of eateries, over a dozen bookstalls graced the occasion too. Presided over by Sindh Minister Education and Culture Syed Sardar Ali Shah, the inaugural session, however, was engulfed with somberness when the news of the death of poet Amjad Islam Amjad was shared.

The inaugural ceremony began with the recitation of Fatiha for Amjad Islam Amjad who was expected to be a part of the PLF. The panelists, moderators and session subjects of the first day were all crowd puller. The inaugural festival day was graced by Iftikhar Arif, Khursheed Rizvi, Nayyer Ali Dada, Ijazul Hasan, Justice (Retd) Nasira Iqbal, Salima Hashmi, Mustansar Hussain Tarrar, Kishwar Naheed, Ata ul Haq Qasmi, Pirzada Qasim Raza Siddiqui, Munawar Saeed, Hamid Mir, Kamran Lashari, Zafar Masood, Razi Ahmed, Anwar Maqsood and Faqir Ijazuddin. The day one concluded with the performance of Ali Azmat and Sain Zahoor.

In the following days, singers Ali Zafar, Ali Azmat, Sain Zahoor, Sahar Ali Bagga, Natasha Baig, Ukrainian singer Kamaliya, and several others enthralled the audiences. The sessions included “Cultural Challenges of the 21st Century”, “Pakistan and Iqbal’s Thought,” “Sohail Ahmad’s (Azizi’s) Talk with Ahmad Shah,” “What’s New in Urdu Fiction?,” “Punjabi Literature in the 21st Century,” “From Farid to Farid,” “Tradition of Public Intellectuals,” the book launch “Kahani Bige Ghar Ki” by Asma Shirazi, “An Ancient Land & its Modern Storytellers,” “Children’s Literature,” “Ahmad Bashir’s Family,” “Najjowanu Ke Naam – Conversation with Hamid Mir,” Mustansar Hussain Tarar’s discussion on the book “Mein Bhanan Dilli De Kangre,” “Lahore Purkamal,” “A session with new age poet Ali Zareon,” “A session with film star Shaan Shahid,” “East Pakistan, Broken Star,” “The launch of ‘Letters to the new critic’,” “TV – Reflection of Pakistani Society?,” “Yadagar-e-Zamana Hai Yeh Log,” “Seventy-Five Years of Pakistani Art” and “Mushaira,” “Folk Tales of Punjab,” “Pakistan`s Deep Air Quality Crisis: Next Steps & Imperatives,” “My Land, My People,” “Education Journey Ahead?,” “Scent of Unrepentant Palm Trees,” the book launch of “Kunj-e-Qafs,” “We Will See,” “Sukhan-e-Iftikhar ceremony,” “Saraiki language and literature,” “A session with singer Ali Zafar,” “State of Economy in Pakistan and the Way Forward,” “Remembering Amjad Islam Amjad,” “Anwar Maqsood’s Pakistan,” “Final Meeting, Lifetime Achievement Award, Resolutions,” and a classical dance show by Naheed Siddiqui.

As the festival was youth centric, all sessions were dominated with youth’s presence. In Hamid Mir show, the audiences, frustrated with the journalist’s one-side version of the events, stood up and protested against him for not mentioning the name of Arshad Sharif among the victims of the highhandedness. Moreover, most of the speakers kept on breaching red lines in one or another by mentioning the volatile economic conditions, lack of opportunities for the youth and government’s efforts to breach the Constitution by delaying the electoral process.

The festival can be called a big success given the turnout of the crowd, their lively response to the panellists’ discussion and the quality of discussion.

As big as PLF. such festivals also see some mismanagement for it is not easy to get everything on time, thus the festival saw the lack of time management. Often, the sessions culminated late, resulting in the late start of the ensuing sessions. Most of the sessions concluded unfinished given the high number of panellists. The session on ‘Does Pakistani TV reflect the Pakistani society?” had eight panellists – B Gul, Sanam Saeed, Munawar Saeed, Sohail Ahmed, Noorul Huda Shah, Asghar Nadeem Syed, Kashif Nisar and Amna Mufti. The session was moderated by Yasir Hussain. The session started 15 minutes late because the earlier session of “Talk with Shan Shahid” concluded late. Now, each panellist was given hardly three to five minutes to speak on the issue. Sanam Saeed got only two minutes to speak.

Nevertheless, the credit for this show goes to the only man standing today for cultual activism and that is Ahmed Shah. Moreover, his excellent rapport with all dignitaries made the event a star-studded festivity.