KARACHI: The fifth and penultimate series of the Peace & Pieces exhibition as part of the ongoing World Culture Festival organised by the Arts Council of Pakistan commenced at the council’s Ahmed Parvez gallery on Thursday evening.

Speaking on the occasion, the council’s President Ahmed Shah said it’s no mean feat to bring in artists representing 142 countries to Karachi, Sindh. There is no festival which has lasted for 39 days with performances in five categories – theatre, music, dance, art and film — the biggest congregation of creative souls of the world.

“The purpose of holding the festival is to let everyone know that all artists of the world are against violence and child abuse. They are pro-human rights, pro-women’s rights and the rights of every citizen of the world.”

Mr Shah said the biggest support for the festival came from the Sindh government. “But the biggest funding came from the artists themselves. It is a unique event which is managed by the artists, our faculty members, alumni and our volunteers coming from different universities. There is no such example in the world.”

He mentioned the challenges faced by the environment (climate change) of the world. “Then what happened in Gaza is the biggest tragedy of the 21st century. Some of the artists at the festival are telling such stories. Governments think in a certain way but artists think differently.”

Saeed Ghani, Provincial Minister for Labour, opened the show. Addressing the media, he showered praise on Mr Shah and said that he has transformed the council in the last 15 years. Before him, the cultural space looked desolate (khandar lagta tha) and nobody wanted to be its member.

He asked Mr Shah to consider sending the festival to the Guinness Book of World Records.

The artists who are taking part in the exhibition, which will conclude on Dec 1, are: Haldor Ragnarsson (Iceland), Mendricka Ratsima (Madagascar), Adeela Suleman, Moeen Faruqi, Qamar Siddiqui, Abdul Jabbar Gul, Ghulam Mustafa, Salman Farooqi, Tanweer Farooqi, Chitra Pritam, Imran Soomro, Abdul Malik Channa, Sajid.

Published in Dawn, November 29th, 2025