MULTAN: The two-day third Multan Literary Festival (MLF) is set to kick off at the Multan Tea House on Saturday (today).

The festival will have 14 sessions including the one on book reading, discussions, musical performance and poetry recitation. Writer Shakir Hussain Shakir says the festival will start with a book reading session at 12pm and he will host the session.

At 2pm, discussion on the topic of ‘Pakistan Main Nazriyati Siasat ki Gunjaish’ will be conducted by Sana Bucha. Pervez Rashid, Chaudhry Manzoor and Wajahat Masood will be the guests.

At 4pm, a telefilm ‘Soghandi’ will be telecast, followed by another discussion at 4:30pm which will be conducted by Dr Akhtar Ali Syed while Mirza Athar Baig, Nasir Abbas Nayyar, Riffat Abbas, Khalid Saeed and Hassan Miraj are panelists. The topic of the discussion will be ‘Istmariat, Frantz Omar Fanon Aur Maqmiyat’.

Seraiki folk singer Mohan Bhagat will perform at 6pm, followed by a Seraiki Mushaira at 7pm. Sham-e-Ghazal will be held at 8:30pm and renowned singer Rahat Multanikar will perform.

On the second day of the festival, book reading will again be the first session of the day and Nayyar Mustafa, Saima Malik and Riffat Abbas will read their books.

At 2pm, a discussion on the topic of ‘Freedom of press in the era of embedded journalism’ will be conducted by Raziuddin Razi and Wajahat Masood, Wusatullah Khan, Mehmal Sarfraz and Rauf Klasra will be the participants in the discussion.

At 4pm, columnist Gul Nokhaiz Akhtar will conduct an hour’s session, followed by a discussion ‘Sinfi Maswat Aur Hamari Riaysat’ which will be conducted by Ramish Fatima while Sana Bucha, Sharmila Farooqi, Noorul Huda Shah and Akhtar Ali Syed will be among the panelists.

At 6:30pm, a telefilm ‘Kundi Hilti Rahi’ will be telecast followed by a session ‘Muhammad Hanif se Mukalma’ which will be conducted by Ali Naqvi while the concluding session of the festival will be a Haryanvi Mushaira.

Published in Dawn, November 13th, 2021