Karachi: Ameena Saiyid, Founder and Director, of the Adab Festival, Jovan Ilic, Deputy Director, of British Council Pakistan, and Wasif Rizvi, President, of Habib University, announced the fourth Adab Festival to be held on 26 and 27 November 2022 at Frere Hall, Karachi.
Ameena Saiyid thanked Mr. Murtaza Wahab, Mr. Iqbal Memon, Commissioner, Karachi, British Council, Habib University, Lightstone Publishers, BARD Foundation, Institute of Business Management, Bank of Punjab, General Shipping Agencies Ltd, GETZ Pharma, LINKS, Pakistan International Container Terminal, Mr. Manzoor of Frere Hall, Mr. Afzal Zaidi, Metropolitan Commissioner, Deputy Commissioner, District South, Municipal Commissioner, District South, Additional Inspector General Police, Karachi Range, Ms. Sara Amjad, Assistant Commissioner (Headquarters) Karachi, Mr. Junaid Ullah Khan, DG Parks, and Sister Liza, Principal, of St Joseph’s Convent School Karachi for their support of the Adab Festival.
Ameena Saiyid said “the theme of the Adab Festival this year is Climate Change. At Adab Festival, we take the literature in its widest form of expression in any language or form such as music, dance, acting, and art. Literature is undervalued in Pakistan and we tend to think of it as ivory tower stuff for the elite. Through Adab Festival, which is free and open for all, we want everyone in the community to love, experience, and enjoy literature. The Adab Festival belongs to Karachi and our community which is why we are having it in an open public space.”
Jovan Ilic, Deputy Director of British Council, Pakistan said: “We are so pleased to be supporting the Adab festival and the theme of climate change which has also been a key area of focus for our Pakistan/UK Season New Perspectives program this year. Festivals have the wonderful ability to create safe ‘exciting’ spaces. It’s not as if all rules are dropped and anything goes, nor is it necessarily a space to overcome differences of opinion as if we are working towards some form of political or civic agreement, rather there’s a complicit agreement almost of spirit. That spirit says, come, enjoy, bring an open mind, and recognize that you receive as well as contribute to this space as an artist and/or as a visitor.
Wasif Rizvi, President Habib University, Pakistan will soon be “unlivable for humans”. Extreme weather events – disastrous rains, lethal floods, devastating droughts, and heat waves – have made such unimaginable catastrophes a lived reality for the people of Pakistan.
Change in Pakistan will likely have increasingly terrible impacts on food security and water scarcity. Despite this existential threat, Pakistan has done little to impact the mainstream climate change narrative.
Habib University, being an intellectually vibrant institution, considers it our responsibility to initiate critical discourse highlighting the severity of such existential threats.
Habib University’s intellectual program is aimed at making society think beyond existing narratives and fostering alternative possibilities.
The theme of the 4th Adab Festival – ‘Climate Change’ – is close to Habib University’s mission of working towards protecting our ecosystem; hence we are delighted to play our part by joining hands with Adab Festival.
Zubeida Mustafa. “Cultural Festivals have educational importance. They have a profound impact on a community. They create harmony, cohesion and, when they are inclusive, a sense of equality and goodwill.”
About 100 speakers and performers will participate in the Adab Festival including Zehra Nigah, Sherry Rahman, Tariq Alexander Qaiser, Fauzia Minallah, Aamer Hussein, Iftikhar Arif, Kishwar Naheed, Wusatullah Khan, Fatema Hasan, Afzal Syed, Tanvir Anjum, Bina Shah, Noor ul Huda Shah, Yasser Latif Hamdani, Taimur Rahman of Lal Band, Zambeel Dramatic Readings, Natalia Gul, and Mahira Khan. Ground-breaking books will be launched such as 1946, The Last War of Independence, The Royal Indian Navy Mutiny, a collection of short stories and unpublished photographs from the Second World War by M H Askari, and more.
There will be a separate strand for children to draw them to reading through storytelling, music, performances, and art.
Adab Festival will introduce new, innovative, creative approaches to promoting books, reading, and authors, raising awareness of climate change by entertaining and engaging the audience through diaries, presentations, dramatic readings, debate, comedy, music, song, art, and dance.
