KARACHI: Pledging to continue his patronage to the Karachi Literary Circle (KLC) and support for literary activities, Administrator Iftikhar Ali Shallwani has said that Karachiites need to take some responsibility for not keeping their city clean.

“Karachi needs a bunch of creative people to sit together and think about how to take their city forward,” he said on Saturday at the second meeting of the newly formed circle on the Frere Hall premises.

Mr Shallwani, who initiated the idea for the KLC in January this year as city commissioner, said there was no power like the power of the human mind. “We need to acknowledge that and value creativity,” he added. Remembering writer and publisher Asif Farrukhi, who passed away on June 1 and was given the Lifetime Achievement Award at the recently held UBL Literary Awards, he said the late author had once met him and discussed matters of mutual interests.

The administrator also announced that as the circle moved ahead, awards would be given to writers.

Earlier, journalist and scholar Ghazi Salahuddin, who is leading KLC activities, talked about the objectives of the group.

He said that one of the aims of the group was to reach out to writers and poets in areas which were not part of the mainstream.

Writer Noorul Huda Shah lauded the circle’s decision to keep Mr Shallwani as its head. Addressing him with reference to his duties as administrator of the city, she said that while it was important to remove garbage dumped in the city, it was also important to remove the kachra (trash) that people had in their minds.

Poet Afzal Syed went down memory lane to talk about his association with Asif Farrukhi. He said he had known him since 1980.

Journalist and writer Syed Kashif Raza, whose novel Chaar Darvesh Aur Aik Kachhwa has won this year’s UBL prize for the best book of fiction in Urdu, spoke about the plot of his novel and gave his suggestions how to help move the circle ahead.

Renovation work of historical buildings

The Karachi Metropolitan Corporation has begun renovation work of historical buildings and parks along with tree plantation.

Official sources said on Sunday that the renovation work was initiated on the directives of Administrator Shallwani and the director general of the parks reviewed the renovation work at Khailq Dina Hall.

After reviewing the renovation work, the DG parks said that no heritage building would be handed over to any other institutions, declaring that the decisions taken in this regard in the past were not acceptable.

He said Kahliq Dina Hall was a historical place where Pakistan Movement leaders Maulana Mohammad Ali Johar, Maulana Shoukat Ali Johar and their companions were tried and convicted under Muqaddama-i-Baghawat (treason case).

The DG parks said that besides Khaliq Dina Hall, Bagh Ibn-i-Qasim, Polo Ground, Frere Hall, KMC building, Empress Market, Lea Market, Karachi Zoological Garden and other historical places were assets of Karachiites and the uplift works had been initiated by the parks department there.

Published in Dawn, September 21st, 2020