Murad Ali Shah opens Urdu Conference 2019

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

The Sindh Chief Minister, Syed Murad Ali Shah, opened the 12th International Urdu Conference at the Arts Council of Pakistan, Karachi, on December 5. 

Declaring the multilingual city of Karachi as the hub of the cultural activities, he reckoned that the culture harmony in Pakistan was stronger than any other country in the world. 

“Pakistan is a country of different cultures and there is a need to promote cultural activities in every province,” he emphasized. 

The Sindh Cultural Minister, Sardar Shah, observed that just as the Indus River was joining the whole of Pakistan from Kashmir to Karachi, Urdu language was uniting the whole Pakistan as a nation. 

“Despite the heaviest of odds, Urdu has survived as the language of communication and cultural harmony in Pakistan,” he added. 

The President of the Arts council of Pakistan, Muhammad Ahmed Shah, stated that there were hardly a dozen people present in the auditorium when he and his team had launched the Urdu Conference 12 years ago with a budget of only Rupees one million. 

“As you all know, now the International Urdu conference has become a global brand of Pakistan. This year’s Urdu conference won’t be having sessions of Urdu only but we will have sessions in all the other regional languages. The Urdu Conference had now changed to a national cultural conference and for the first time sessions of other languages were also to be held in the conference. On the other hand we have delegates from India, Germany, Japan, USA, Canada, and China,” he said.

In the opening session, Shamim Hanfi and Haris Khalique presented they papers on the current political, social and literary situation in Pakistan and the world. The session was chaired by Chief Minister Sindh Syed Murad Ali shah and hosted by Muhammad Ayub Shaikh. 

The conference, to continue until December 8, will feature over 150 delegates from 20 countries, along with 32 sessions on diverse forms of art such as film and TV. 

Music and dance performances, book fairs, dasatangoi and mushairas as well as a photography exhibition, capturing the 11-year old history of the conference have also been planned on the sidelines.

Murad Ali Shah inaugurates KIBF 2019

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi
(Pakistan News & Features Services) 

The 15th Karachi International Book Fair 2019 got underway at the Karachi Expo Centre on a hazy morning of December 5 but there was plenty of action inside the three gigantic halls, attracting a large number of people. The event will continue until December 9.

It’s the 15th edition of the international book fair in Karachi, being organized by the local chapter of the Publishers & Booksellers Association (PPBSA) with the collaboration of the National Book Foundation (NBF). 

Having been launched in 2005, it has gone on to become an important cultural event of the city. The 15th KIBF 2019 was inaugurated by the Sindh Chief Minister, Syed Murad Ali Shah, whose speech on the occasion was telecast live by the various television channels. 

His assurance that the provincial government would take every possible step to enhance reading habits across the province was viewed with skepticism because of the dubious record of the various governmental organizations working under his command. 

The Chief Minister, however, was spot on while having observed the gradual decline in reading the habit among younger generations which indeed was reflected, as pointed out by him, that there was hardly any youngster attending the ceremony itself which he was addressing. 

He reckoned that efforts be made to revive our old culture of finding best books in the shelves of libraries, in the corners of bookstores, on the push-carts and footpaths. 

Murad Ali Shah recalled his student days at the iconic NED University of Engineering & Technology, Karachi, where he and his classmates used to visit the library on a regular basis. 

He even correctly recalled the name of the then librarian (Habib Saheb) of the 1980s at the NED University who worked very efficiently with his team to facilitate the students. 

The Chief Minister didn't mince words in declaring that he still derived more pleasure and satisfaction by reading a hard copy rather than its soft copy despite the availability of all kinds of modern gadgets like Ipads, laptops and tablets.