Punjab

Pakistan Literature Festival kicks off

Gloom hovers over Alhamra as literati try to come to terms with Amjad’s demise

Our Correspondent February 11, 2023

The day Pakistan Literature Festival commenced at the Alhamra Art Council, Urdu literature icon Amjad Islam Amjad passed away. An empty chair was placed on the dais in his memory. Photo: Hamad Elahi/EXPRESS

LAHORE:

The political and cultural luminaries who turned up at the most touted Pakistan Literature Festival that kicked off at the Alhamra Arts Council in the provincial capital on Friday must have found it difficult to come to terms with the irony of the passing away of Amjad Islam Amjad on the very day the three-day festival was to begin.

But, as they say, life goes on, and the festival, a brainchild of the president of the Arts Council of Pakistan Karachi, did begin as per schedule amid the hovering gloom of the death of one of the country’s finest playwright, author and poet.

A portrait of Amjad Islam Amjad, who was supposed to be a part of this festival, was affixed at an empty chair at the stage.

During the programme, the Director of Admin of the Arts Council Karachi, Shakeel Khan, prayed for eternal peace for Amjad Islam Amjad while Iftikhar Arif And Kishwar Naheed spoke on the services of Amjad Islam Amjad.

Provincial Minister of Education and Culture of Sindh Syed Sardar Ali Shah began his speech with a poem of Amjad Islam Amjad and said that he couldn’t be away from us even if he was away. The Pakistan Literature Festival of Arts Council of Pakistan Karachi will continue at the Alhamra Arts Council Lahore until Sunday night.

Sindh Education and Culture Minister Syed Sardar Shah inaugurated the festival while Anwar Maqsood, Iftikhar Arif, Hamid Mir, Nayyar Ali Dada, Kamran Lashari, Justice (R) Nasira Iqbal, Kishwar Naheed, Zafar Masood, Mian Faqir Ejazuddin, Fateh Muhammad Malik, Pirzada Qasim Raza Siddiqui, Razi Ahmed and others were also present. Alhamra’s Hall No. 1 was packed to capacity, and thousands of people watched the opening ceremony on a screen outside the hall.

Before the opening ceremony, banners and posters were displayed at major roads and intersections of Lahore while the Alhamra Arts Council was decorated with flags, posters and banners. A majority of the people who had turned up at Alhamra comprised young people who gave an enthusiastic welcome to Anwar Maqsood, Hamid Mir and Ahmad Shah.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 11^th, 2023.