Adab Festival Pakistan to launch in February at Sindh Governor House

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KARACHI: AdabFest Founders and Directors Ameena Saiyid and Asif Farrukhi have announced that the first Adab Festival Pakistan in partnership with Getz Pharma will be held on the first three days of February at the Sindh Governor House.

They were speaking at the launch press conference of AdabFest 2019 at the Karachi Press Club on Tuesday where esteemed members of the electronic and print media were briefed about the main features of the first Adab Festival Pakistan and details about the Getz Pharma Fiction Prize.

The organisers of Adab Fest are no longer using the name ‘Pakistan Literature Festival’ because of certain legal proceedings against them, temporarily restraining them from using this name for such a festival.

Addressing the media, Ameena Saiyid OBE said: “I am delighted to announce the first Adab Festival Pakistan in Karachi to celebrate authors, writings, artists, access to knowledge, and public spaces.  Hope this becomes a movement across Pakistan”.

“With the new year begins a series of yearlong festivals of literary and cultural celebrations. We want this to be a regular series of events located in as many cities of the country. We want to highlight and celebrate the depth and diversity of Pakistan’s many languages and literary traditions,” Asif Farrukhi added.

On Getz Pharma’s partnership with AdabFest, Getz Pharma CEO Khalid Mehmood said: “We are a Pakistani pharma company and we strongly feel that the health of a nation depends not only on a healthy body but a healthy mind and a healthy soul. Without literature, art and dialogue carried out in a democratic civil manner, the nation’s body will not have a healthy soul nor a healthy mind.”

The Keynote Speakers at the 1st AdabFest will include Dr Ishrat Husain, Arfa Zehra, Peter Oborne and HaseenaMoeen.Over 100 speakers have so far confirmed their participation at the AdabFest including Mustansar Husain Tarrar, Iftikhar Arif, Kishwar Naheed, Mohammad Hanif, Zia Mohyeddin, Zehra Nigah, Anwer Maqsood, H. M Naqvi, Harris Khalique, Fawzia Afzal-Khan, Baela Raza Jamil, Kamran Asdar Ali, Tariq Khosa, Javed Jabbar, Attiya Dawood, Hameed Haroon, Salim Raza, Nadeem Husain, Richard Heller, Ian Vaughan-Arbuckle, Nafisa Shah, Nasim Zehra, Omar Shahid Hamid, Yaqoob Bangash, NimraBucha, Veerta Ali Ujan, Zarrar Khuhro.