Sindh festival to focus on climate change

The Sindh Literature Festival, now in its sixth year, will feature key sessions on climate change along with the staple of literary and cultural discussions. It will also include a tribute to poet and intellectual Sheikh Ayaz, organisers said on Thursday.

The three-day festival, now in its sixth year, will take place at the Arts Council of Pakistan Karachi, said its president, Ahmed Shah, at a press conference. He was accompanied by prominent personalities including writers Noor Ul Huda Shah, Dr. Ayub Sheikh, Naseer Gopang and Zohaib Kaka who gave a briefing on the event.

Shah said that an important feature of the festival was the high proportion of young people in attendance.

She also lauded the organisers for regularly organizing the festival despite the opposition from certain sections.

“We have faced resistance in the past but we have still gone ahead with hosting it,” said Arts Council’s Ahmed Shah, adding that there was still some opposition but it was ‘due to ignorance’.

“There is only one panacea for the ills of our country and it is consciousness, and such festivals help develop it,” said Dr Ayub Sheikh said.

Naseer Gopang said that “Climate Change” was the theme for this year’s during which the birthday of poet and intellectual Sheikh Ayaz would also be celebrated. It would include a recital of young poets and debates on various topics, he added.

It is not the ‘Sindhi Literature Festival’ but the ‘Sindh Literature Festival’, where all languages would be celebrated including Urdu, Punjabi, and Seraiki. “There will also be separate sessions on transgender community, International Women’s Day, and startups.”

Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah and Education and Culture Minister Sardar Ali Shah will inaugurate the festival.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 24^th, 2023.