First Intl Council for Sufism and Peace

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Academy of Letters (PAL) will hold an International Council for Sufism and Peace at the end of this year in Islamabad, according to Fakhar Zaman, Chairman, PAL.

The event will be the first of its kind in South Asia. More than 85 scholars, authors and opinion-makers from 37 countries are expected to attend and foreign donor agencies, including UNESCO, will be approached to fund the event.

The academy felt it was imperative to establish a permanent forum for intellectuals, said Zaman, while giving a briefing about the objectives and proposed activities of the International Sufi Council on Friday

“The main objective of the council is to help redefine the image of Pakistan as a land of the Sufis, committed to peace and universal brotherhood, instead of being wrongly perceived as a terrorist region,” Zaman said.

He said under the ambit of International Council of Sufism, PAL has started working on the production of world-class documentaries in English language for a global audience.

These documentaries will be subtitled with all six United Nations-accepted languages, English, French, Spanish, Russian, Chinese and Arabic, in addition to Urdu, he explained.

Meanwhile, Zaman said because of lack of funds, the completion of an auditorium, dedicated to Faiz Ahmad Faiz, has been delayed.

He said the academy recently launched a unique publishing project to present selected literary works to the public from all languages of Pakistan, including Urdu, Punjabi, Sariaki, Sindhi, Pashto, Hindko, Balochi, Barahwi, Gujrati, Bulti, Shina, Khawar and Broshiski.

Future plans of PAL include the International Conference on Faiz Ahmad Faiz in February 2011.

In addition to this, PAL plans to translate the books of all Nobel Prize laureates for Literature into Urdu, starting from the very first Nobel Awards in 1901 to date.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 24^th, 2010.