ISLAMABAD - Spangled with hundreds of Pakistani and foreign speakers including authors, poets and academics, 67 sessions and launching of 14 books, three-day 2nd Islamabad Literature Festival (ILF) will commence here at a local hotel on 25th of this month.
Ameena Saiyid, managing director of Oxford University Press, said this at a press conference here on Tuesday. “Through such events, ILF intends to create an intellectual space in which the diversity and pluralism in Pakistan’s society is expressed by authors from Pakistan and abroad. The festival allows writers to freely access people in an open and participatory manner,” she maintained.
The 2nd ILF will include features like talks, interviews, panel discussions, book fair, book launches, theatre play, art sessions, exhibition by Art Now and My Art World, and a photo exhibition by Citizens Archives of Pakistan (CAP), informed Saiyid.
“We are committed to organising this event in Islamabad every year. The people must come to participate in this festival,” she said while talking to The Nation.
Dr Federico Bianchi, head of economic and commercial office at embassy of Italy, while talking to The Nation said, “We have been sponsoring this event for the past three years in Karachi and Lahore and now also in Islamabad and will keep supporting it in future too. We reconstructed Saidu Sharif Museum and intend to organise an event dedicated to archaeology in mid of May this year.”
Dance performance by Sheema Kermani and Dastangoi by Danish Husain and Darain Shahidi, both from India, as well as by Fawad Khan and Nazrul Hasan are parts of the inauguration ceremony.