Arts Council of Pakistan Karachi organized an event named writers forum to discuss the past, present, and future of Pakistan’s literature.
Including president Arts Council Mohammad Ahmed Shah, Hamra Khaleeq, Omer Iftikhar, Dr. Fatima Hassan, and Anila addressed the session. The session was conducted by Rabiya Afridi.
Speaking on the occasion Ahmed Shah said, more ancient languages than Urdu already existed in this region, Sindhi is the oldest language of this region, and he said that in literature we have to include the mother tongues of the people living in the Pakistani region. We should be grateful for the English to which we got to read literature in another language.
We have to move forward with time the world is changing. Kamla Shamsi, M.Hanif, H.M Naqvi, and Haris Khalique are writing poetries in English.
Hamra Khaliq said that connection with books and library is a part of our life, the tragedy of the present age is that parents do not want to read on their own which is having a very bad effect on the lives of children.
She said that earlier people used to write on tree bark then with the development and revolution the idea of books and paper came into being. The books started to be published on various subjects.
“In the early days, after the establishment of libraries in many countries, books were considered as a dangerous weapon for the people instead of guns and swords, so all the libraries were burnt to ashes because the rulers believed that if people will become literate they won’t be able to rule on them” Hamra added.
“A country cannot develop without the development of art and literature and in this regard, we need to do more work, we should set up a library in our educational institutions which will help create awareness among the children,” said scholar and poet Dr. Fatima Hassan
Addressing the session Omar Iftikhar said that literature and culture have a deep relationship, storytelling is almost non-existent.
In the past, the elders of every household used to tell stories to their children, but now in the name of modernism, children are more involved in mobile phones they may not understand the fun of books, poets, and writers.
On the occasion chairperson of Goethe Institute of Pakistan Anila paid regards to Ahmed Shah for organizing the session.
