KARACHI: Founder and Director Adab Festival Pakistan Ameena Saiyid has said that Adab Festival Pakistan is a tapestry of literature and culture that will promote and nurture talent in writing, research, music, art, dance, theatre, etc.
She was speaking at a press conference at the Karachi Press Club.
The Adab Fest will be held on the first three days of February at the Sindh Governor House Karachi, the historic location where Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah took his oath as Governor-General on August 14, 1947, and where he lived and died.
The entrance will be from the main gate on Aiwan-e-Sadar road. On most days entrance into the Governor House is not allowed except for Sundays when it is open to the public, but for Adab Fest the Governor House will be open to the public for from 2 pm to 9 pm on Friday, February 1, and from 11 am to 9 pm on Saturday and Sunday, February 2 and 3.
Ameena said that they had rented the YMCA across the street to ensure plentiful parking for those coming in cars and that Careem will be offering 15 per cent discount off their fares to a maximum of Rs80 per ride, to anyone using the promotional code AdabFest to come and go from Adab Fest.
The audience will experience literature in diverse Pakistani languages, book launches, talks, interviews, discussions, mushairah, a book fair, music, dance, theatre, comedy/satire, and film. Over 140 Pakistani and international authors, artists, intellectuals, and media personalities will participate. An audience of around 100,000 is expected to celebrate not just ideas, debate and creativity but also community and public space.
In his comments, Adab Fest Founder and Director Asif Farrukhi emphasised the inclusive nature of the event and the broad scope, covering many languages, several forms of writing through celebrating the established writers and highlighting new publications to be launched during the programme.
“The voice of the writer, the poet, the intellectual is becoming increasingly marginalised and through such festivals, this voice can be brought back to the mainstream. Important literary trends and social issues will come up for discussion offering a feast of intellectual delights,” he said.
On Getz Pharma’s partnership as the Lead Sponsor of AdabFest, Getz Pharma CEO Khalid Mehmood said: “Literature and heritage is the soul of any nation. Ameena sahiba and Asif sahab have done a great service to this nation by founding these literary festivals. As one of our main CSR areas, we encourage these events because they go a long way in building a more tolerant, well informed and educated country.”
Inauguration keynote speakers include Dr Ishrat Husain, Arfa Zehra, and Dr Vali Nasr. Closing keynote speakers are Ahmed Rashid, Haseena Moeen, and Peter Oborne.
Over 140 speakers will be participating at the AdabFest including Mustansar Husain Tarrar, Iftikhar Arif, Kishwar Naheed, Mohammed Hanif, Zehra Nigah, H. M. Naqvi, Raza Rumi, Harris Khalique, Fawzia Afzal-Khan, Baela Raza Jamil, Kamran Asdar Ali, Tariq Khosa, Javed Jabbar, Attiya Dawood, Hameed Haroon, Salim Raza, Nadeem Husain, Peter Pannke, Stefan Weidner, Craig Murray, Richard Heller, Ian Vaughan-Arbuckle, Nasim Zehra, Yaqoob Bangash, Nimra Bucha, Maniza Naqvi, and Zarrar Khuhro.