Faiz Centenary: Celebrations begin from Friday

Events will include seminars, concerts, mushairas and a mela at Bagh-e-Ibne Qasim.

KARACHI: The year-long celebrations of the Faiz Centenary are going to end this month after the last phase which will begin in Karachi from November 18, according to an announcement by the president of Karachi Faiz Centennial Committee, Zafarullah Poshni at a press conference at KDA Officers Club. 

He said that Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani will inaugurate the three-day celebrations from Chief Minister House, while philanthropist Abdul Sattar Edhi will inaugurate the Faiz Aman Family Mela at Bagh-e-Ibne Qasim.

Poets and writers from America, Canada, England, Europe, India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Azerbaijan are also expected to attend.

The celebrations will include concerts, in which Vidya Shah, Seema Sehgal, Tina Sani, Shahzad Roy, and the band Laal will sing the Faiz’s poetry. Seminars will be held in Urdu, Sindhi and English, and there will be mushairas.

The Urdu and English seminars will be held at the Usman Institute of Technology and Institute of Business Administration, while the venue for the Sindhi seminar will be decided soon, said the committee’s secretary, Rahat Saeed.

Sindh Minister for Culture Sassui Palijo will host a dinner for foreign guests on November 17 at the National Museum in Karachi.

Palijo said that the government did everything to make the visa procedure easier for foreign visitors.

The government ordered to translate all of Faiz’s work in Sindhi and funds have been saved for the purpose.

Saeed termed the celebrations ‘a big achievement’. “Earlier the governments were not even ready to hear Faiz’s name but now his name is everywhere.”

Published in The Express Tribune, November 17^th,  2011.