KARACHI: The 10th International Urdu Conference organised by the Arts Council of Pakistan Karachi will be held from Dec 21 to Dec 25, announced president of the council Ahmed Shah at a press conference on Thursday.

Mr Shah said the conference was in its 10th year, so was the presence of his team in the council. This year, the conference had been planned keeping in mind the 70 years of Pakistan’s inception. The aim was to review the various facets of culture and literature that had taken shape in the seven decades.

He said 10 years back, 12 Indian delegates took part in the moot at a time when Mumbai was rocked by explosions [dhamakey]. Then ethnic violence was witnessed in the city at a time when Iftikhar Arif was presiding over a mushaira. Forty lives were lost, which made the conference organisers switch off the lights outside the venue to keep the mushaira going, not because of any insensitivity but because it was their defiance against the obscurantist forces.

Mr Shah said this time around the conference would span five days. The reason for it was that Dec 25 was the birth anniversary of the Quaid-i-Azam, and also was a holiday. There was more variety in topics to be discussed in the event such as women’s issues, dance, theatre, music etc, apart from traditional sessions on fiction, poetry and criticism. Then there is a session called ‘Quaid-i-Azam ka Pakistan’, which would focus on what kind of Pakistan the Quaid envisaged.

Giving specific details, Mr Shah said eminent artist Zia Mohyeddin would read out excerpts from Mushtaq Ahmed Yousufi’s (who’s not keeping well) works and Abu Mohammad and Farid Ayaz would perform qawwali.

Calling it good news, he said scholars from India were coming to participate in the moot. They included Prof Shamim Hanafi (who will deliver the keynote address), Qazi Afzal Hussain, Anis Ashfaq, Khushbir Singh, Ranjeet Singh Chohan and Farhat Ahsas.

He said eight to 10 scholars, including Aamer Hussein, from England would also be reading their papers.

Answering a question about scholars getting cut off during their speeches or presentations and asked to wrap up their thesis early, he said he agreed with the journalist who had asked the question. Expanding on it he said each speaker was given 10 minutes on stage with the request that if their paper was lengthy, it would subsequently get published.

Published in Dawn, December 15th, 2017