KARACHI: Ameena Saiyid, pioneer of literature festivals in Pakistan and founder of Karachi and Islamabad Literature Festival, founding Director of Adab Festival unveiled speakers names and highly anticipated programme for 5th Adab Festival at press conference held here. Festival is set to take place at Habitt City, Shah-rahe-Faisal on November 25-26, 2023.

Ameena Saiyid-OBE, Sitara e Imtiaz provided comprehensive overview of festival and introduced some of distinguished speakers of two-day festival. She said, “In young country like Pakistan, we are lucky to have rich and longstanding literary and cultural heritage and have duty to preserve and build on it. It was believed in Pakistan that golden days of Urdu were over, Ghalib, Iqbal and Manto belonged to past, that Faiz was unique and so on. There was little enthusiasm for literature and reading books and literary culture in Pakistan was almost barren.

“Being in business of books, I felt that my job was not just to make books available but to involve public in literary world. I wanted to show youth that, not just sports or soldiering, but literature too can have its heroes. Hence, I introduced this culture of literary festivals and Adab Festival, since its inception has been platform for celebrating literature, fostering dialogue and promoting an exchange of ideas.”

This year, Adab Festival brings together stellar lineup of speakers including Javed Jabbar, Jehan Ara, Iftikhar Arif, Moeed Yusuf, Anjum Halai, Kishwar Naheed, Afzaal Syed, Noorul Huda Shah, Amar Sindhu, Arfana Mallah, Ahmed Shah, Pirzada Qasim, Peerzada Salman, Atif Badar, Yasmin Motasim, Stephen Lyon, Tanveer Anjum, Junaid Zuberi, Tariq Qaiser, Tasneem Ahmar, Zahid Hussain, Fatema Hassan, Zehra Nigah, Nadia Naqi, Syed Khawar Mehdi, Mumtaz Baloch, Dr  Ishrat Hussain, Sima Kamil, Sultana Siddiqui, Mahtab Rashdi, Omar Shahid Hamid, Azad Iqbal, Liaquat Merchant, Khalid Anum, Nauman Naqvi, Nadia Naqi, Sarmad Ali , Syed Kaleem Imam, Muhammad Ali Shaikh, and other renowned personalities who will enrich our understanding of world and inspire us to explore new horizons.

There will be sessions on books including those on Betrayal by Omar Shahid Hamid, memoirs of Iskander Mirza, Honour-bound to Pakistan in Duty, Destiny and Death edited by Syed Khawar Mehdi, Beyond Fields by Aysha Baqir, Jinnah: Life by Yasser Latif Hamdani. In Pursuit of an Ethical State: Reflections of Police Chief by Syed Kaleem Imam, Face to Face with Benazir by Zahid Hussain and many more. Sessions include power women of Pakistan, higher education, school education, down to last dollar, from Boston to Beaconhouse (an interview of Moeed Yousuf), cricket and Pakistani imagination, mushaira, theatrical performance by Grips Theatre, discourses on Artificial Intelligence, mental health and mangroves and musical session with Azad Iqbal, eldest grandson of Allama Iqbal.

Published in The Daily National Courier, November, 23 2023

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