‘Karachiites share culpability for lack of cleanliness’

Iftikhar Shallwani promises awards for authors under Karachi Literary Circle

KARACHI:

Karachiites need to take some responsibility for not keeping the city clean, said Karachi administrator Iftikhar Shallwani at the second meeting of the newly constituted Karachi Literary Circle on Sunday.

Addressing the meeting at Frere Hall, Shallwani, who had propounded the idea for the literary body as the city commissioner in January, said creative minds in the city needed to sit together and think of ways to push the port city forward.

"There is no power like that of the human mind. We need to acknowledge this and value creativity," he said.

Remembering late author and publisher Asif Farrukhi, who passed away in June, Shallwani recalled a meeting with the late author where they discussed matters of common interest.

Drawing his address to a close, the administrator announced that awards to felicitate writers would be organised under the banner of the literary circle soon.

Earlier, journalist Ghazi Salahuddin, who heads the literary circle, shed light on the body's objectives and said one of the reasons it had been established was to reach out to writers and poets in remote areas.

Writer Noorul Huda Shah, particularly addressing Shallwani in connection with garbage removal in the city, opined that while it was important to rid the metropolis of trash and garbage, cleaning people's minds of filth held equal significance.

When it was his turn to speak, poet Afzal Syed went down memory lane, reminiscing about time spent with Farrukhi. Speaking about his association with the late author, Syed said they had known each other since 1980.

Journalist and writer Syed Kashif Raza, whose novel 'Chaar Darvesh Aur Aik Kachhwa' [Four Seekers and a Tortoise] won this year's UBL literary award for best Urdu fiction, spoke about the novel's plot. He also gave suggestions to advance the literary circle's reach.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 21^st, 2020