‘Let authors help create a free society’

Karachi
Pakistan has been ruled more by dictators than democratic leaders and that is the reason why it does not have a free and open society, the federal information minister said on Sunday.
“Autocrats posed themselves as a symbol of wisdom and intelligence to impose a radical ideology which discouraged the culture of debate and diverse education,” Senator Pervaiz Rashid said at the closing session of a three-day national literary conference organised by the Pakistan Academy of Letters at the Karachi Arts Council.
Rashid believed that education could not flourish freely during the rule of dictators and the only solution to promote and advance literature was establishing a democratic culture in the society.
“All four dictators of the country were away from the teachings of the Quaid-e-Azam despite the fact that some of them presented the Quaid in ‘shehrwani’ and others portrayed him in a three piece suit and a tie,” he remarked.
“Dictatorship is the opposite of intelligence and it steals the right of free speech and discourages arts, literature and poetry in a society.”
He said the leaders of our country had never promoted the culture of reading and writing, resulting in illiteracy. “The nation is not interested in purchasing and reading books.”
Responding to a demand that the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority should be strengthened, he said many powers had been transferred to the provincial assemblies after the 18th constitutional amendment and a provincial minister had received more authorities than a federal minister in many ways.
“I want to remind you that I am Pervaiz Rashid, not Pervez Musharraf who had all the powers at his disposal to do anything,” he commented.
He said many speakers had criticised politicians at the conference, but the latter were elected by members of society.
He said the Chinese president had promised to install a solar power system at the parliament after learning that it too was subjected to power outages.
Rashid congratulated the organisers for arranging the conference and assured them that his ministry would cooperate and collaborate with them in promoting literary.
Earlier, provincial education minister Nisar Ahmed Khuhro while speaking at the event, regretted that the nation had been unable resolve racial and linguistic conflicts after 68 years of the country’s independence.
He proposed giving the national status to all languages of Pakistan and avoiding calling them regional languages to avoid any discrimination.
“Everyone in the country knows that Kalabagh Dam could never be constructed but some people deliberately raised the issue time and again to create provincial disharmony,” he noted.
Referring to a comment by a speaker that only literary scholars could unite the nation and politicians could not, Khuhro said he could have responded in detail over the topic but did not have enough time on the occasion.
“Pakistan came into being after political efforts and the founder of the country was a great political leader,” he added.
He said it was unfortunate for the nation when a dictator had discouraged political activities.
“There are thousands of books being published but the readership is shamefully so less that there is no impact of the views presented by the authors,” he observed.
The chairpersons of the five sessions presented the summary of the conference and informed the two ministers about the suggestions that were presented at the event.
The most repeated suggestion was to provide authors privileges, especially facilitating them with medical, transportation and educational services.
There was a consensus on restoring the lost status of an author to help them create a free society.
Renowned poet Riaz Majeed said the conference was successful in opening a new door to a prosperous literary future in the society.
“It is great to see renowned poets and authors and they have communicated their thoughts and concerns in a very effective manner,” he said.
Dr Muhammad Qasim Bughio, the chairman of the Pakistan Academy of Letters, told The News hat the conferences would also be held in Lahore on May 11 and 12, in Quetta on June 6 and 7, and in Peshawar on June 13 and 14.
He said the other three provinces, especially Balochistan, had shown a great response to hosting the conference.