LONDON: Marking the 70th anniversary of Pakistan’s foundation, the Karachi Literature Festival (KLF) held a series of events in London’s Southbank Centre on Saturday. Tickets had sold out as soon as they became available and the 20 events at the festival attracted capacity audiences.

Sessions ranged from talks by authors, discussions and poetry readings to musical performances.

The keynote address was given by leading Pakistani writer Mohammed Hanif whose rapid tour of Pakistani history highlighted the difficulties faced by the country’s authors. He recounted how in recent times one had been shot after organising a discussion; another, a journalist, faced a high-level inquiry because he reported that, sometimes, the army and politicians don’t agree, and a third was lynched because of a Facebook post.

Organiser says despite the country’s image most Pakistanis are moderate because of their Sufi tradition

Highlighting cases of the disappeared in Pakistan and quoting Human Rights Commission data, Mr Hanif said that 728 people had been disappeared in 2016 — the highest number in the past six years. But writing about the disappeared was so dangerous, he pointed out, that one risked becoming disappeared himself.

In her speech, the organiser and managing director of Oxford University Press in Pakistan, Ameena Saiyid, said that “despite its image most Pakistanis are moderate because of our Sufi tradition”.

Talking to Dawn after the event, Ms Saiyid said she had chosen to have KLF in the British capital because “London is the ideal place because of its diaspora of over a million people of Pakistan origin who want to be reconnected with their roots”.

High-profile speakers included the former co-chair of the British Conser­vative Party, Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, who spoke about her new book The Enemy Within: A Tale of Muslim Britain.

Other topics covered by the KLF London included transgender issues, cinema, class politics, religious and private schools and a number of discussions on the Partition which highlighted neglected aspects of what happened, including the stories of fathers and children.

Speaking about the purpose of the KLF in London, Ms Saiyid said that she was hoping to move beyond the images of Pakistan that are dominant in the media. “The purpose is to raise the profile of Pakistani authors and project a more accurate and holistic image of Pakistan,” she said.

Many speakers took a similar line. In a session on Karachi, for example, they said the city was no more violent than many other global megacities and that the real problems faced by most Karachiites were not related to security so much as inequality and a lack of infrastructure. One said her research showed that Karachi was safer than New York.

The KLF was held as part of a weeklong event at the Southbank Centre called Alchemy — an annual festival celebrating London’s position as a centre of global cultural influences.

Published in Dawn, May 22nd, 2017