Pakistani book stall in India successfully concludes
Books displayed by Pakistan Academy of Letter gain recognition
Conference on Faiz Ahmed Faiz to be organised in February 2011
LAHORE
A book stall set up by the Pakistan Academy of Letters (PAL) in New Delhi, for the Commonwealth Literary Meet and Book Fair 2010, successfully concluded, said the PAL members. PAL Chairman Fakhar Zaman said that such conferences and book fairs helped in smoothing the peace process between India and Pakistan.
PAL members said they had been invited by the Sahitya Akademi (National Academy of Letters, India) and they returned with many orders for the reprinting of books they displayed. According to PAL, the stall became the centre of attraction among the commonwealth delegates, local writers, intellectuals, scholars and media who appreciated PAL’s work.
PAL displayed books in Urdu and English, as both prose and poetry from 1947 to 2008, involving literature during general Zia’s dictatorship and Sufism. Special editions of ‘Adabiyat’ on Amrita Pretam, Ahmed Faraz, Munir Niazi, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, and Josh Malihabadi also attracted the delegates.
Muhammad Asim Butt, editor of the quarterly ‘Adabiyat’, said that he gave a detailed briefing to the commonwealth delegates about PAL’s books at the seminar. He declared the year 2011 as the year of literary and cultural festivals and said that literary organization from both India and Pakistan were organizing a conference on Faiz Ahmed Faiz that was expected to be held on Februrary 12 and 13, 2011.
