The yearly Alhamra National Exhibition of Visual Arts will open today at the Alhamra Art Centre, The Mall.

The national exhibition earlier used to be organised by the Pakistan National Council of Arts (PNCA) on a regular basis in Islamabad; however, since the last year the Lahore Arts Council (LAC) decided to follow in the footsteps of the PNCA and started holding its own national exhibition. It has been title ‘Alhamra National Exhibition of Visual Art’.

The officials at Alhamra told this reporter that about 200 works have been received for the exhibition from all over Pakistan.

Sara Naveed is among the new breed of English language writers from Pakistan with her three books to her credit. Her books, Undying Affinity, Our Story Ends Here, and All of My Heart, have created ripples among the young generation of readers. Like her two earlier books, the third book, All of My Heart, has been printed by the Penguin Random House, India, and it has been just released there. It would hit the bookstores here soon.

Sara told this reporter that she had done her primary education from Ibn Sina English High School, Sharjah, and matriculation from Convent of Jesus and Mary, Sialkot before going to complete her graduation in business and got her Master’s degree in Banking and Finance from the University of Management and Technology, Lahore.

Sara always wanted to be a writer. Her interest grew and her writing skills improved whit the passage of time. She hopes that the people would keep loving her writing. Apart from writing novels, she is working as a content head at a leading software firm in Lahore and also running her own monthly book subscription box service.

For the last four months, the National Performing Arts Group of the PNCA, Shakir Ali Museum, has no dance trainer. The last dance instructor, Zafar Dilawar, passed away on July 1, 2018 due to cardiac arrest. Since then, there has been no dance instructor there. Dilawar served the PNCA for 12 years.

Dilawar’s family is now facing acute financial crunch as the PNCA has not extended any financial grant to them. When this reporter contacted Jamal Shah, director general PNCA, he said: “May be in a month or so we shall provide some financial help to Dilawar’s family”. However sources in the PNCA said since Dilawar was employed on contract, so PNCA might not extend any financial help to his family.

The PNCA DG said the council would appoint a dance instructor soon for group of dancers.

Political analyst, author and columnist Dr A.R. Khalid’s book ‘Jamhooriat, Amriyat Aur Baybus Awam’ has been launched by Qalam Foundation.

In his book, Dr Khalid, a former professor of the Institute of Communication Studies, Punjab University, discussed political history of Pakistan, drawing comparison between the democratic government and dictatorship.

He termed Gen Ayub Khan’s rule most prosperous era of the political history of country. He called former Prime Minister Muhammad Khan Junejo the most successful politician among all, adding that his government was toppled due to his upright behaviour.

Dr Khalid talked of the charter of democracy in the book, saying it was originally an American idea. He said Robert Okaley, ambassador to Pakistan in the 1990s, was trying to find out something common between Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif. “I told him he may not find any commonality between them but finally it was found.”

Published in Dawn, November 26th, 2018