Writers and poets capture the society ethos as nothing else. PHOTO: FILE
Literature enthusiasts, book lovers and college students gathered to attend the inaugural ceremony of the Islamabad Literature Festival (ILF) at the Margala Hotel on Tuesday. Writer Asif Farooqi inaugurated the ceremony. “It is a great honour to bring the literature festival, especially after seeing the turnout, we can easily say Islamabad is not a dull city.”
European Union Ambassador Lars-Gunnar Wigemark while addressing the inaugural session, said, as we celebrate democracy moving forward, there are forces who want to silent the democracy.
Writers and poets capture the society ethos as nothing else. As Pakistani society has diversity, it is not possible to impose one school of thought which is being tried by some forces. Such festivals should be held in other cities of Pakistan as it expresses the country’s diversity and ability to have discourse on different issues, he added.
The festival features 70 speakers and more than 35 sessions. Approximately 6,000 participants visited the festival on the first day. Oxford University Press (OUP) Managing Director Ameena Saiyid welcomed the guests. In her speech, she observed “a common system or syllabus is not the solution, teacher training, improving curriculum and providing children better quality books to encourage the reading habit.”
Asif Farrukhi, co-founder of the ILF, said that literature remains the medium to express the society’s feelings and status. Quoting writer Intizar Husain he said “this is the time of signs.” Husain said that the last century through which I have lived most of my life started by promising a bright future but it turned into a century of two world wars, fascism and now intolerance too has spread to Asia.
Kamila Shamsie, winner of Granta magazine best of young writers’ award for her contribution as a novelist, paid tribute to Husain and his novel ‘Basti’.
“In Pakistan it is taught that history is confluence of religion, actually history is confluence of geography. We deny our thousands of years of historical background in Pakistan, she lamented. The festival has been organised by OUP.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 1st, 2013.
COMMENTS (1)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
In her speech, she observed “a common system or syllabus is not the solution, teacher training, improving curriculum and providing children better quality books to encourage the reading habit.”
No M'am, we DO need a common system and curriculum; along with teacher training, improved curriculum and providing children with better quality books!
And we also need to do away with English as a medium of instruction. Retaining it merely as a foreign language subject.
Just the way Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf's Education Policy envisions!