KARACHI: The engaging and knowledgeable discussions about books and authors at the 16th Karachi Literature Festival (KLF) organised by the Oxford University Press (OUP) at Beach Luxury Hotel for the last two-and-a-half days drew to a close on Sunday with keynote speeches by Senator Khushbakht Shujaat and journalist, broadcaster and author Mishal Husain delivering keynotes in Urdu and English languages.

Speaking in Urdu, Senator Khushbakht Shujaat said that books, book culture and learned discourses were her first love. “I belong to that generation,” she said, “which has seen the dipping of pen nibs into ink pots to write and also experienced having the world at our fingertips through our computers or phones”.

About KLF, she said that Karachi is thirsty for such events. “There was also a time before the KLF when book launches at the Arts Council of Pakistan drew jam-packed audiences,” she said. “Today, people ask if books still matter and I tell them that the significance of books were felt when the Almighty sent us the greatest book of all, the Holy Quran,” she made her point.

“Sadly, we are starting to see less of our youth and more from our own generation at events such as the KLF now. Our elders passed down to us the love of books. We were introduced to libraries as children. I read Saadat Hasan Manto and Ismat Chughtai at an age when I didn’t even understand them. Later, when it came to their writing again I realised what they were saying. They were not writings for a child but no one had stopped me from reading them because literature was literature still,” she said.

Speaking in English, Journalist, broadcaster and author Mishal Husain said that creative expression in all its forms has to be part of any nation’s story and it has long been so in Pakistan. “It is unwise and unnecessary and wrong for any leader to be afraid of it and seek to restrict it,” she said, adding that they are also unlikely to be successful in doing so in any real sense and in any way beyond the short term.

Presence of fewer young people at the festival saddens Khushbakht

“It is because it is the natural flow and admirable quality of the citizen, who has the talent and the ability to create. And for the rest of us, it is our task, indeed our duty to be their audience to support their dreams of the present and future, to follow their train of thought, to read, to buy books, to buy art where we can, to subscribe and follow and amplify because what they do is for us all,” she said.

Finally, OUP’s Managing Director Arshad Saeed Husain delivered the vote of thanks and announced the festival closed.

Ayesha Tammy Haq, Khalid Mahmood, Group CEO of Getz Pharma and Maya Inayat Ismail, chairperson, Sustainability Forum, HBL, also spoke.

A qawwali by Ustad Farid Ayaz and Ustad Abu Muhammad took KLF to its conclusion.

Earlier, during the final day’s events included both Urdu and English sessions on various topics along with several book launches.

The book launches included Of Reason, Romance and Ruin: A Conceptual History of the Pakistan Ideology by Nadeem Farooq Paracha, the Urdu translation of the 2024 Nobel Prize for Literature winner Hang Kang’s novel The Vegetarian by Asma Hussain titled Shakahari, Soliloquies? Existing on Earth: In Verse by Tariq Alexander Qaiser, A Woman on a Suitcase by Shazaf Fatima Haider, Akbar in Wonderland by Umber Khairi, Coining a Wishing Tower by Ayesha Raees, Forgotten Images: Postcards of Pre-Pakistan 1890-1947 by F.S, Aijazuddin, A Man with a Pen by Waqas Khan and Journey Through Chaos by Mazhar Abbas.

Pakistani author of English novels Kamila Shamsie in conversation with journalist and filmmaker Hasan Zaidi spoke about ‘Weaving Worlds with Words’. While talking about her recent move from London to Doha, Qatar, Kamila said that she has been writer-in-residence at Georgetown University in Qatar since last August.

“Prior to that, I have been at the University of Manchester, too. But it was a relief to move to Doha, because in Manchester you had a student protest about Palestine. There was a woman, who was a Palestinian student, who was very vociferous and not the University of Manchester but the home office, the UK government intervened to say that her student visa should be revoked,” Kamila said.

“And here you are sitting in a room, teaching people about writing and all of this is going on. It is a horrible atmosphere to be in. And then I moved to Doha and within weeks of my getting there Georgetown University was having a huge Palestine conference where the basic assumption of everyone who was speaking was starting with there is a genocide,” she said.

“It wasn’t something that we needed to argue about. It was the basic fact to start a conversation from. So that part felt very liberating,” Kamila smiled.

An interesting panel discussion about the small screen titled ‘Chhoti Screen Ki Bari Fatuhat’ saw moderator and television personality Dr Shaista Lodhi in conversation with writer Noorul Huda Shah, actor Saba Hamid and directors and filmmakers Sarmad Khoosat and Nadeem Baig deliberating on what has happened to the television drama.

Noorul Huda Shah said that when there was just one channel PTV, the writers decided what they wanted to do but now the writers are dictated to. Saba Hamid said that it’s the quantity that has taken over the quality. “It’s mathematics versus arts,” she said. Sarmad Khoosat also said that quantity is the killer right now. Meanwhile, Nadeem Baig was of the view that storytelling has evolved with technology. “And so drama has evolved, too,” she pointed out.

Published in Dawn, February 10th, 2025