Ninth Karachi Literature Festival inaugurated

F.P. Report

KARACHI: Ninth Karachi Literature Festival was inaugurated. In her inauguration sheech, Ameena Saiyid, Chair, Oxford University Press, and Founder/Director, Karachi and Islamabad Literature Festivals said that KLF, launched in 2010, is the Mother of all Festivals in this country as it has given birth to literary festivals in Lahore, Hyderabad, Faisalabad, Gwadar, as well as to music, Sufi, film, and theatre festivals. Inspired by KLF, the Children’s Literature Festival (CLF) was launched and 46 have been held so far. The momentum begun by KLF has spread across Pakistan.

Ameena Saiyid said that KLF is not just an event but a movement. It brings together books, reading, scholarship, and the arts, and celebrates them all. It combines scholarship, culture, and creativity with variety, diversity, colour and vitality. “There is much to look forward to over the coming two and a half days of discussion, debate, dissent, literature, art, and culture. KLF is like a mini-university, a place where one can interact with some of the most creative minds. It affords an opportunity to an emerging generation of Pakistanis to test their ideas and aspirations for a future divested from the colonial mindset and entering the fourth industrial revolution of artificial intelligence, robotics, machine learning. KLF draws from or touches upon every part of Pakistan” she added.

She told that KLF began and grew as an act of defiance against the forces of repression and intolerance. Today, it has become an Act of Optimism, a Celebration of Hope, a Festival of the Future. Like the great German philosopher and poet Goethe, KLF aims at “More Light!”

KLF is open to all and free. It brings together authors writing in diverse languages and genres. It features debates, discussions, book launches, readings, signings, comedy, satire, a book fair, theatre, film screenings, music, dance and Mushairas in Urdu, English, and now Sindhi. Always innovating, this year will feature performance poetry, two Debate format sessions, and the great Zia Mohiuddin reciting Shakespeare. We have an Open Mic setup to engage youth in reciting their poems and stories. In order to further impact the community, we have an outreach programme of some authors who are at KLF speaking and engaging with students at universities.

KLF attendance has grown from around 5,000 in 2010 to more than 200,000 in 2017. In 2010, there were 35 speakers/performers. This year, we expect around 250 speakers/ performers.

During this KLF, we will be privileged to hear keynote speeches from historian Francis Robinson; author Noorul Huda Shah; political and diplomatic figure Mani Shankar Aiyar; author, poet, and musician Amit Chaudhuri; and TV and theatre icon, Anwar Maqsood.

Four literary prizes will be awarded. The KLF- Pepsi Best Non-Fiction Prize,theKLF- German Peace Prize,The KLF-Getz Pharma Best Fiction Prize, and the KLF-Infaq Foundation Best Urdu Prize.

Additionally, the UBL Literary Excellence Award winners and the Eqbal Ahmad Centre for Public Education Video contest winners will be announced at ceremonieshere.

KLF was co-founded by Asif Farrukhi and myself, and is produced by Oxford University Press, a department of the University of Oxford that furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide.

Ameena Saiyid thanked all the sponsors including, PepsiCo Pakistan (title sponsor), Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL), United Bank Limited (UBL), Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany, Karachi, Goethe Institut, Karachi, Alliance Francaise, Embassy of France in Pakistan, British Council, US Consulate General, Karachi, Getz Pharma, Infaq Foundation, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES); Tapal Tea, Careem, Habib University, LUMS, I Am Karachi, Consulate of Italy, Karachi, TV One, News One, TAQ (Tariq Alexander Qaiser).

Ameena Saiyid also thanked the KLF team for their hard work in putting this festival together: Raheela Baqai, Zehra Nasim Haque, Muniza Ali, Somair Qureshi, Zubeida Ahmar, Salman Kazmi, Faryal Farooq, Amman Aziz and his team, Salma Adil and her team, Irfan Ali, Asna Jamal, Faisal Usman, Batool Nasir, and Nadia Ghani. A special thanks was given to team Mediators, Manhattan, and Dinshaw Avari for facilitating this event.

In the end Ameena Saiyid said that the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said during his recent visit to Karachi that London was the greatest city of the world and that it was open not only for business and trade but also for culture and tourism. As a citizen of Karachi, in whose streets I have run around and climbed trees, I say that Karachi is the greatest city in the world and IT is open today -for business, culture, and tourism.