REFERENCE the article in Books and Authors (Feb 19) on the Karachi Literature Festival.

I am thankful to the writer for taking note of the session with Zehra Nigah and Mushtaq Ahmed Yusufi. He described this session as a “silver lining in the otherwise dark cloud.” High praise indeed. But if this is the case, I wonder why this session was missing on your news pages.

The sessions included the works of Sheikh Ayaz and regional and national cultural concerns showcasing the work of three women poets living in North America, viz., Shahida Hassan, Nasim Syed and Humaira Rahman. They talked about migration and home away from home. None of these sessions merited any comment in Books and Author. Why should they lament the number of sessions in Urdu?

I have a far more serious grievance. Without giving adequate consideration to the writers who were there, the article complains about the absence of some writers, ignoring the possibility that all major writers could not be covered in a single festival.

I am quoted as making the remark that some writers had not been invited to avoid repetition.

However, the way the article is worded, it implied that I mentioned some names as if these very people had been avoided. I protest that I have been quoted out of context and incorrectly.

I did say that some names were avoided, but I neither mentioned any names nor did I imply this for any writer or poet. The article considers my claims to be “hollow”.

I resent this attribution to me as incorrect and unnecessary. The article ends on a self-congratulatory note for being charitable. I wish it had been closer to the truth.

Asif Farrukhi

Karachi

Published in Dawn, February 24th, 2017