KARACHI: Adab Festival is the new Silk Route through which tradition, ideas, literature and the arts can travel and enter the hearts of people in every part of Pakistan, said the festival’s founder and director Ameena Saiyid OBE at press conference on Wednesday.
Speaking at the Arts Council, where the festival will be held on January 31, February 1 and 2, she said that she was delighted that the seed of the movement of literature festivals that were planned a decade ago had taken root and were blooming across the country.
Discussing the festival, Saiyid said that there would be 60 to 65 sessions with more than 200 speakers. She added that they would also have sessions on comedy, satire and a qawwali.
She said that they would hold a special event for them. “We will invite different groups to talk about what they want to see and hear,” she said.
Author and co-founder of the festival, Asif Farrukhi, highlighted the role literary festivals play and how they emphasized on social issues.
Some events to watch out for include: a creative writing course by writers Aamer Hussain and Sheheryar Shaikh, life coaching by Sayeda Habib, qawwali by Farid Ayaz and Abu Mohammad and a special video message from Prince El Hasan bin Talal of Jordan.
Responding to a question about public libraries in the city, the Karachi commissioner claimed that people had complained about how he had set up an open library for the elite. “I will now take this to all five districts of Karachi,” he added. Arts council’s Ahmed Shah also spoke at the event.
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