KARACHI: Adab Festival Pakistan, the premier literary event of Pakistan, kept attendees engaged all day today with its diverse and engaging program on its first day.
The festival kicked off with an opening ceremony hosted by Pomme Gohar. The ceremony included the National Anthem performed by students of Education Trust Nasra School (ETNS) followed by insightful speeches from key figures, the pioneer of literature festivals in Pakistan, the Founder of Karachi and Islamabad Literature Festivals and Founder and Director of Adab Festival Ameena Saiyid, Inaam Nadeem, Farid Ahmed Khan, Munis Abdullah and Minister of School Education and Literacy, College Education & Women Development, Rana Hussain. The ceremony culminated with the eminent Adab Festival/Infaq Foundation English and Urdu Literary Awards and a performance by ETNS students.
Exciting sessions marked the day featuring prominent figures and discussions on diverse subjects. Among the highlights was the Power Women of Pakistan session moderated by Sheema Kermani in which Jehan Ara, Uzra Dawood, Tasneem Ahmer, Aisha Sarwari and Ambassador Mumtaz Zahra Baloch spoke of their journeys.
Yasser Latif Hamdani spoke about his book, Jinnah: A Life, with Dr Mohammad Ali Sheikh and Syed Jaffar Ahmed. Liaquat Merchant, the grandnephew of Quaid e Azam, chaired the session.
A session moderated by Khursheed Hyder, featured Sultana Siddiqui and Mahtab Akbar Rashdi discussing modern media and societal changes especially with regard to women.
Adab Festival’s afternoon sessions included Hassan Abbas’s The Return of the Taliban in which the author, Amir Rana, Zahid Hussain and Arifa Noor discussed the current resurgence of the Taliban and life the departure of the Americans and the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. Another session on Aysha Baqir’s novel, Beyond the Fields had the author discussing the book with Aamna Latif and focusing on the theme of gender-based violence and the pursuit of justice.
A session titled Television: Then and Now had Ehteshamuddin and Atiqa Odho as speakers and Nina Kashif as the moderator
A book launch of Danaye Raz by Azad Iqbal, grandson of Allama Iqbal, moderated by Rukhsana Saba featured a heartfelt conversation about Azad Iqbal’s poetry with readings from his Diwan and insights into his life as a poet. Azad Iqbal also sang the verses of Iqbal, Ghalib and Faiz.
Another interesting session spotlighting “Dukhtar-e-Rumi” featured its Urdu translator, Inaam Nadeem in conversation with Nasira Zuberi. They reviewed and discussed his translation of Muriel Maufroy’s bestselling novel, ‘Rumi’s Daughter.’
As the evening came to a close, there was riveting singing of Bulleh Shah’s Kalam by Nadia Jamil and Yousuf Bashir Qureshi (YBQ).
As is Adab Festival’s tradition, the night finally culminated with an enthralling Mushairah. Moderated by Nasira Zuberi, it featured poets like Asim Raza, Javed Saba, Mehjabeen Ghazal Ansari, A.H. Khanzada, Syed Kashif Raza, Fazil Jamili, Inaam Nadeem, Aqeel Abbas Jafri, Tanveer Anjum, Fatema Hasan and Afzal Syed. Anwar Shaoor, Kishwar Naheed and Pirzada Qasim were the guests of honors for this Mushairah.
