KARACHI: The second and concluding day of the 10th Adab Festival, which was under way at Habitt City turned out to be yet another day of nurturing minds with intellect. There was artificial intelligence, heritage sites, power women, sinful women, poetry, setting right of historic facts, art, film, drama and so much more to delve into on Sunday.

The festival’s founder Ameena Saiyid is also the publisher and managing director of Lightstone Publishers. It goes to her credit that she always give equal space to books published by other publishers. The love of books remains at the heart of the festival.

One such example was the discussion with the authors of Designing Tomorrow with Artificial Intelligence and Pakistan’s first AI Tools Dictionary, Dr Salman Ahmed Khatani and Sadaf Bhatti, respectively, with moderator Ahsan Siddiqui. “Change is the only constant. Pretty soon we will not be teaching our children ‘A for Apple’ but ‘A for Artificial Intelligence’,” pointed out the moderator.

“We are all futurists as we anticipate the future,” said Dr Khatani. “But now as we move towards transhumanism, we can also design our future,” he added.

Discussions on AI, heritage, ‘sinful’ women, art and history provoke thought

Meanwhile, Ms Bhatti, who is an educationist, has also compiled the first AI Tools Dictionary in Pakistan. “I was reading up on AI tools and thought that there was a need for a dictionary of such tools along with their links and QR codes. The book is rather thin now but with so many tools being introduced all the time, its thickness will grow,” she said.

Another book, which is not a Lightstone publication, was Nadya Chishty-Mujahid’s Perennial College Tales. Discussing the challenges of writing the book with author Taha Kehar, Nadya admitted that it was a challenge writing about the opposite gender as her focus in the book was on young college males. “I needed accurate knowledge of how they think,” she said while revealing how boys approached her themselves hoping to be written in as one of her characters in the book.

Journalist, author and poet Peerzada Salman’s recent independently published book Fever Log and Other Stories was also launched at the festival on Sunday. The session with the author was thoroughly enjoyed by the audience, who also loved listening to what Amber Romasa Nagori had to say about her new book Tales of Agnimitra and Tamanna, which is published by Lightstone as is Where Cicadas Sing by Athar Tahir where Christi Marie Lauder of Habib University and author and publisher Safinah Danish Elahi joined in the discussion with the author. A panel discussion ‘Echoes of Mohenjodaro’ with archaeologist Dr Asma Ibrahim, environmentalist Afia Salam, writer Nasreen Iqbal and Raheela Baqai, as the moderator, reached the conclusion that there is a need for spreading awareness about our heritage sites among our young as they are the custodians of the future.

A session about the ‘Power Women of Pakistan’ saw classical dancer and activist Sheema Kermani, President of TCS Group Saira Awan Malik and PPP MNA Sharmila Faruqui in conversation with journalist Zarrar Khuhro, who managed to get them to talk about the things they have faced in life that enraged them so much that they turned that anger into fuel for moving towards positive action.

The following session was called ‘Hum Gunahgar Aurtein’, where poets Kishwar Naheed and Zehra Nigah, writer Noorul Huda Shah and educationists Huma Baqai and Prof Uzma Farman Farooqui proudly related to the title of ‘Gunahgar Aurtein’ or sinful women as described in Kishwar Naheed’s poem by the same title as all have dared to stand up and question the wrongs in society. But it was a little funny to see them joined on the stage by journalist Wusatullah Khan, who also admitted that he was just as sinful as them. Shayma Saiyid’s beautiful singing of Hum Gunahgar Aurtein at the end of the session touched many hearts in the audience, who also wanted to join the rest on the stage and rebel.

The discussion about Senator Farhatullah Babar’s book The Zardari Presidency (2008-2013) Now It Must Be Told was another interesting session where the author revealed that widowed President Zardari told him that he would never remarry as that would rob him of the honour of being Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s son-in-law.

The book talk about Shehzad Ghias’ Pakistan Lost with the author, senior journalists Zahid Hussain and Nadeem F. Paracha, author Omar Shahid Hamid and moderator Amber Rahim Shamsi reached the conclusion that history should be taught truthfully to help the country progress.

Mian Raza Rabbani’s book The Smile Snatchers: A Timeless Tale of Children, Resistance and Hope in Gaza found critique in DawnMedia CEO Hameed Haroon’s comments. According to Haroon, the book is not to be taken at face value. He also said that the genocide and slaughter seen in Gaza is also relatable to Kashmir. And “Watch out”, he warned, “it is also about Pakistan”.

The launch of Amin Gulgee’s Gulgee Museum — The Handbook was an arty affair with all his panellists, except Amin, hiding their faces in white veils. Later, the veils were removed though to reveal their identities as Niilofur Farrukh, Bina Shah, John McCarry and Adam Fahy-Majeed. It was a performance as well as discussion.

The 10th Adab Festival came to a close with a music concert by Saif Samejo.

Published in Dawn, November 24th, 2025