THIS is apropos of the news item “Parveen Shakir’s death anniversary goes unnoticed” (Metropolitan, Islamabad, Dec 27, 2012) by A Reporter.

We would like to say that this is not true. If the reporter had been aware of other media channels and newspapers, besides his own, he would have seen the following:

A day earlier there was a notice of Qurankhawani being held by the Parveen Shakir Trust at the H-8 Graveyard on Dec 26, 2012. The poet’s colleagues and friends of the Trust attended it. It was covered by various TV channels and televised throughout the day in ‘headlines’ and main news.

Throughout the day almost all the 25-odd Pakistani TV channels paid Parveen Shakir their tribute by showing documentaries on the poet’s life. Many articles and news items appeared in local newspapers to mark the occasion.

Members of the Parveen Shakir Trust had a poetry reading session on Parveen’s poetry the next day. Earlier in the year, in October, it held its annual function in the form of a tribute to Faiz Ahmed Faiz, ‘Faiz ki Kahani, kuch unki kuch hamari zabani’, a docu-drama staged for two days at the PNCA in Islamabad.

PARVEEN QADIR AGHA Islamabad