Sindh Governor Imran Ismail said that incumbent federal government wants to promote literary activities and being the representative of federation, Governor House is open to all literary events. "Government will extend cooperation in this regard," he said, addressing the inaugural ceremony of the first Adab Festival Pakistan, the 3-day literary event being held at Sindh Governor House on Friday.
"Through Adabfest we want to create a new Silk Route through which all the grandeur of our traditions and culture, literature and arts, expressed through every language in the country, can travel out of obscurity to join the world's assemblage of cultures and their luscious fruit," said Ameena Saiyid, founder and director Adab Festival Pakistan.
The Adab Fest will continue tomorrow and day after tomorrow. The venue has historic significance since founder of Pakistan Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah took his oath as Governor General on 14 August 1947 at that place and where he had lived and died. Main gate on Aiwan-e-Sadar Road is the entry point for the visitors. Otherwise, general public is allowed to visit it only on Sundays but for the Adab Fest, it remains open to the public from 11 am to 9 pm on Saturday and Sunday.
Ameena Saiyid said they want to encourage and boost creativity in all its luminous forms. From the bards of Balochistan to the storytellers of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the modern-day writers of Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi, from the rich traditions of Punjab and Sindh to the unopened treasure chests of Gilgit-Baltistan, we hope to coax more and more manifestations of talent in culture and inspired research, she said, wishing to nurture and promote them.
The co-founder and director Asif Farrukhi said that inauguration ceremony marked the culmination of a long process of tribulations and challenges. He said it was pleasure of dealing with books and working with authors and poets which kept alive their spirit for the event. He showered poetess Fahmida Riaz with praise for being a guiding spirit even posthumously.
As the principal sponsor of AdabFest, Getz Pharma CEO Khalid Mehmood said: "Literature and heritage is soul of any nation. Ameena sahiba and Asif Sahib have done a great service to this nation by founding these literary festivals. He said they encourage these events because they go a long way in building a more tolerant, well informed and educated country.
The Adab Festival Pakistan Getz Pharma Fiction Prize was awarded to Kamila Shamsie for her book 'House Fire.' Bina Shah Mohammad Hanif and Zarrar Said were also short-listed for that. Nasim Zehra's book 'From Kargil to the Coup: Events that shook Pakistan' was launched. Hameed Haroon, Najmuddin Shaikh, Gen Tariq Waseem Ghazi (retd), ex-diplomat Shahid Amin, Ahmed Rashid and the author sat at a panel discussion moderated by Mosharraf Zaidi.
A session on "Karachi: Encroachments and Demolitions" was held with a panel, including Faisal Siddiqui, Iftikhar Ali Shallwani, Muhammad Toheed, Noman Ahmad with Rumana Husain as moderator. How women's empowerment, autonomy, human (sexuality and reproductive) rights and economic justice are reflected in the work of the panellists Fatema Hassan, Hani Baloch, Maheen Usmani, Maniza Naqvi, Saira Shah Halim, Severine Minot and panel chair Fawzia Afzal Khan were the points discussed with said authors under "Contextualising Feminism."
At the session "The doors of perception: Accessing the unseen in Islamic tradition," Professors Nur Sobers Khan, Waleed Ziad and Francisco Luis held a discussion on ahsan and esoteric traditions in Islam. They shared views on aesthetics, perception of beauty, dream interpretation, Islamic psychology, spiritual wayfaring, divine energy and meditative practices.
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