Karachi Literature Festival kicks off promising 'creative spaces'

KARACHI: A crisp February evening and lush green lawns greeted visitors at the opening ceremony of the Karachi Literature Festival (KLF) on Friday.

Over 136 Pakistani and 40 international authors are expected to attend the festival being held on February 10, 11 and 12 at the Beach Luxury Hotel.

Keynote speakers for the event – Ayesha Jalal, a historian and professor at Tufts University, and Mustanasar Hussain Tarrar, travel writer, host and columnist — spoke at length on how festivals like the KLF provide occasions for societies to stop, think and reflect.

Jalal said that on one hand Pakistan, as a country, was dealing with issues like extremism and terrorism, while on the other hand its youth was doing wonders by creating "scintillating music".

The professor went on to discuss how it took 23 years for Pakistan to hold its first general elections. Elaborating herself, she said, "Democracy is not a magic wand, turned on and off at election time; it is a process."

Travel writer Mustansar Hussain Tarrar reminisced the times when he and Jalal were neighbours and all the children of the neighbourhood would play together in a playground.

Quoting a Turkish author, he said that a good writer is one who knows all the rivers and neighbourhoods of his birthplace. "In stark contrast, different cities in Pakistan are alienated from each other. So Peshawar and Karachi are like two different islands."

Managing Director Oxford University Press Ameena Saiyid said that the attendance at the event was growing every year. She said that the KLF was an inclusive event which invited people from all over Karachi.

She said that this time there were eight speakers from India and she hoped that it would help strengthen ties between the two neighbouring countries.

Co-founder Asif Farrukhi said on a lighter note that winter in Karachi would soon be gone, making way for summer to arrive. "But it would not affect the people of Karachi for we know that the more the seasons change, the more they remain the same."

He added that since Basant had been banned, the only other thing people could enjoy was the "Basant of books".

Prizes for books in both fiction and nonfiction categories were announced at the ceremony.

The ceremony was pleasantly disrupted as Lollywood star Shabnam arrived at the venue and fans thronged her.

Three books shortlisted for the Non-fiction award were Surkh Salam: Communist Politics and Class Activism by Kamran Asdar Ali, A Book of Conquest: The Chachnama and Muslim Origins in South Asia by Manam Asif, and the Raj at War by Yasmin Khan.

The Raj at War by Yasmin Khan won the award.

In the fiction category, The Spinner's Tale by Omar Shahid Hamid, Dear Yasmeen by Sophia Khan, and Karachi Raj by Anis Shivani have been shortlisted.

Omar Shahid, who is also a senior police official in Karachi, won the prize.

Absolutely stunned to have just won the Getz Pharma fiction prize at #KLF 2017! Wow great honour

— omar hamid (@omarshamid) February 10, 2017

The event ended with a classical dance performance by Shayma Saiyid.