Karachi: Third day of three-day Pakistan Literature Festival 2023 organised by Arts Council of Pakistan Karachi at Al Hamra Arts Lahore started with ‘New Poetry New Possibilities’. Yasmeen Hameed, Najeeb Jamal, Fatima Hassan, Jawaz Jafri and Aurangzeb Niazi talked about topic while Shakeel Jazib organised event. Yasmeen Hameed said who will decide what is new and what is old. They discussed if they can give this responsibility to reader? Is poetry of Wali Dakni and Mir also new in way, because if there was no poetry of Wali Dakni, maybe Mir and Sauda would not have written poetry in this way, they think that poetry that is suitable today is new, said Dr. Najeeb. Like life, poetry is also connected with possibilities, Mir’s experiences are still useful for us today.

Jawaz Jafari said that he started discussion of ‘new’ literature which wanted to demystify old, M. Rashid, Miraji and Akhtar-ul-Iman are among people of this period, Manto’s name is prominent in fiction. This poetry movement was actually movement of modern poetry which arose in opposition to Ghazal. Iftikhar Arif and other writers and poets have always worked a lot for promotion of literature and are writing for every generation. Aurangzeb Niazi said that new poetry and new literature is actually poetry and literature of 60s, which is slightly different from poetry of 21st century.

Topic of ‘Folk Tales of Punjab’ was discussed, in which Axi Mufti and Sarwat Mohiuddin discussed topic. Meeting was moderated by Beena Gondi. Axi Mufti said, “I took responsibility for such work which could be reversed by flow of water. I am sorry that nowadays we have adopted ways as outsiders, have forgotten our personality, even today’s mothers cannot sing Punjabi lullabies to their children because they themselves are ignorant of Punjabi has been forced to, because today’s generation does not understand Punjabi”.

Published in The Daily National Courier, February, 13 2023

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