The musical show ‘Sufi Night’ is one of the most exquisite segments of the ongoing book festival, and attracted a large number of people, especially the youth, at the fourth day of the festival held at Pak-China Friendship Centre Saturday night.
Men, women and children participated in the event with great enthusiasm and enjoyed it very much.
The youth was dancing in the singing programme, which featured the country’s renowned vocalists Sanam Marvi, Shiraz Opal, Riaz Qadri, and Sher Miandad entertained the audience with their unique styles of singing and melodious voices.
Well-reputed TV Artist Shahnaz Shaikh was the host of the Sufi Night.
The five-day event was organised by National Book Foundation (NBF) in a bid to disseminate knowledge and inculcate a book reading habit among people. In the last four days, more than 60 segments were held.
The main theme and focus of these segments was the ‘book’ as it brings tranquillity, harmony and tolerance in the minds of people which leads to peace and love in the society. This cause-oriented book festival is the best way to lure the present generation away from negative activities.
The NBF chalked out comprehensive programmes to commemorate the Sixth National Book Day.
The event has a prime purpose of promoting our enriched culture and education amongst the people deeply and effectively.
This Book Mela has been held to provide excellent opportunities to everyone to buy books at discounted prices from the book stalls established there, and to sell a large variety of books to book-lovers. Moreover, the people present were able to enjoy different entertaining programmes, meet with some of the living legends of the country, and spend memorable moments with renowned writers.
The festival has a slogan i.e. ‘Book and Peace go together’. That is the reason that a purposeful and meaningful evening was arranged in an event, “Live with a Legend” which featured well-known writer Intizar Hussain.
A special programme has been held and an evening with the famous humorous poet Anwar Masood was celebrated.
In the book reading session the sanctity and glory of the book was upheld.
Ata-ul-Haq Qasmi, Zahida Hina, Muhammad Hameed Shahid, Asghar Nadeem Syed, read out some selective portions of their books whereas Anwar Shaoor, Sehr Ansari, Shahnaz Shaikh recited verses from poetry books.
Mahboob Zafar was the host of this segment. Multiple programmes for children were arranged as well.
A large number of book lovers attended the segments. High calibre authors, famous writers, intellectuals, showbiz stars and personalities of different fields of life enjoyed a lot it as this brought huge amusement, knowledge and information with respect to Urdu literature, for everyone.
Similarly, the overseas Pakistani Writers segment was also liked by everyone. The former foreign Secretary and poet, Akram Zaki presided over the session while the Managing Director, Oversea Pakistanis Foundation, Habib-ur-Rehman Khan was the chief guest.
Writers from abroad and inland met together and shared moments with each other.
The Book Reading Sessions of the translation of Turkish and Chinese languages into Urdu were attended by foreigners and Pakistanis as well.
The NBF acted upon a comprehensive plan of publishing textbooks for the students of Grade-I (Prep) to Grade XII by upgrading and improving the quality of the book to the International standards.
This was stated by renowned book-development expert, Dr. Attash Durrani in a segment of the workshop on Textbook Writing and Development. Other speakers included Madam Uzma, while Chaudhry Faisal Mushtaq also spoke on the topic.
This brainstorming workshop was attended by a large number of teachers, students, experts and professionals.
The participants took keen interest in this useful workshop and they came to know international standards and benchmarks of textbooks development particularly in line with prescribed curriculum and style guidelines.
The seminar in the honour of National Poet Allama Muhammad Iqbal was held. German Cultural Attachi famous calligrapher Aslam Kamal and Dr. Ehsan Akbar spoke about the philosophy, literature, poetry and services that Allama Iqbal rendered for Muslims. Humayun Iqbal Shami was the coordinator of this segment.
The students of COMSATUniversity played a thought provoking drama based on our national poet and his message.
Darakshan Batool of FatimaJinnahUniversity for Women presented a graphic personification of Iqbal’s poetry.
