LAHORE: The Lahore Arts Council (LAC) will hold the Lahore chapter of the Pakistan Literature Festival (PLF) from Feb 10 to 12 in collaboration with the Pakistan Arts Council.

It was decided in a meeting between Alhamra Chairman Razi Ahmed and Pakistan Arts Council Karachi President Ahmed Shah.

The PLF claims to be the first-of-its-kind mega event in the country that will celebrate and honour Pakistani literature, culture, languages, arts and musical performances on a global scale in a way that has never been done before.

The first chapter of the PLF was scheduled to be held in Gwadar from Jan 13 to Jan 15. However, it was postponed later on.

Regarding the festival, Razi said the preparations for the PLF were in full swing. He noted that Alhamra would continue the tradition of providing the people with the environment for knowledge and literature. Apart from academic and literary sessions, Pakistani crafts, food stalls, music, dance performances, and a book fair would be part of this festival, he added.

Speaking about the festival, Ahmed Shah said such steps were aimed at promoting and developing language, literature and culture. He said the festival would have sessions in Urdu, Punjabi, Pashto, Balochi and other languages.

Alhamra Executive Director Zulfiqar Ali Zulfi said that in the festival, Alhamra would pay tribute to those who have rendered various services in the field of language and literature.

Sughra Sadaf, Asghar Nadeem Syed, Osama Siddique, Sheeba Alam, Arts Council of Pakistan Executive Director Daniyal Umar, Nasir Abbas Nayyar, and Ziaul Hasan participated in the meeting.

According to the information available on Facebook page of the PLF, the event initially was scheduled for eight cities of the country, namely Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Gwadar, Gilgit-Baltistan, Muzaffarabad, Multan, and Peshawar. The Gwadar chapter was later postponed.

Published in Dawn, January 10th, 2023