10 prominent legends to be awarded

 ISLAMABAD: A three-day literature festival to celebrate Pakistan’s mother languages will be organised by Indus Cultural Forum (ICF) in collaboration with Pakistan academy of Letters (PAL) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Pakistan.

Niaz Nadeem, member board of Governors ICF, shared while talking to APP, “Our mission is to seek equal recognition, respect and dignity of all languages of Pakistan.” The organisers have prepared an elaborate programme for three days. It will start with an opening ceremony on 18th February followed by lifetime achievement awards ceremony in which 10 prominent legends of various languages of Pakistan will be awarded.

ZahidaHina (urdu), DarweshDurrani (Pushto), Sheeraz Tahir (Potohari), Ghani Parwaz (Balochi), Parveen Malik (Punjabi), Dr. Nasrullah Nasir (Seraiki), Noor ul Huda Shah (Sindhi), Asif Saqib (Hindko), Gul Bangulzai (Brahui) and Hassan Hasrat (Balti) are the award beneficiaries for their contribution in promotion of local languages.

The cultural fair, the 7th in the series, will be celebrated on PAL’s premises from February 18 to 20. Other partners who will grace the occasion include the Culture Department, Government of Sindh, Forum for Language Initiatives (FLI), ECO Science Foundation and others.

The next two days will focus on a number of parallel and plenary sessions. The key highlight of the second day is the premier screening of a documentary titled ‘Pakistan: Places, Faces, Voices’ by UNDP Pakistan. Other activities of the day include launching of the books in over 15 languages comprising various genres including poetry, fiction, linguistics and non-fiction. A symposium on feminist literature in mother languages will also be part of the day.

Attractions of the last day will include dialogues on the role of literature festivals in promoting linguistic diversity, role of state and society in promotion of languages, and short stories in various vernacular languages of Pakistan. A multilingual music evening will set the stage for the closing ceremony on the final day. In addition to that, an exhibition of paintings on linguistic diversity will also be held. A number of book stalls of different languages will also be set up.

ICF started the journey of honouring Pakistani mother languages in 2016. Since then six conferences have been conducted successfully, four of them at LokVirsa and two at Pakistan National Council of the Arts.

Chairperson of Indus Cultural Forum Munawar Hassan told APP that the festival has demonstrated excellent collaboration and cooperation between various government and civil society organisations like ICF.

“Pakistan is home to over 72 languages but beauty of these languages is hardly known at national level. Therefore we want to showcase that these languages carry a rich tradition of knowledge and wisdom which we should not let go without celebrating,” he emphasised.

Each year the gala brings together various attractions from across the country. This year’s festival has added more attractions such as screening of the documentary by UNDP, launching of over 50 books in different languages and recognition of legends of the languages.

The event is open and free for all with full compliance to COVID-19 Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), whereby participants are requested to bring their vaccination card.

Federal Minister National Heritage and Culture Division Shafqat Mahmood will grace the occasion as the Chief Guest.