Pak-China literary moot goes unnoticed

LAHORE
The two days long International Pak-China Urdu Literary Conference on July 28th and 29th, a highly significant step towards bringing the Pak-China literary worlds even closer and opening new vistas for literary and cultural exchange between the two countries, went unnoticed due to the absence of a required government and media hype.
Although the International Pak-China Urdu people proved to be a great stride towards further cementing the already quite warm relations between the two longstanding friends; nevertheless, the absence of usual media hype and state sponsored promotional activity on the roads of the provincial metropolis and a lukewarm response by the print and electronic media speaks volumes about the sincerity of purpose on the parts of the departments of state concerned, who were responsible for organising and hosting such a big event. Moreover, the absence of Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Pervaiz Rasheed, who was to inaugurate this event, spoke volumes about the government’s tall claims regarding Pak-China friendship. Unlike many culture and literature related big events i.e. Lahore Literary Festival, this moot of writers from Pakistan and China was also held in Lahore, but it was hosted in a local hotel on The Mall with a very little commotion and usual razzmatazz attached to such highly significant events in the past. It was widely felt that such an important literary event deserved a great deal of publicity and fan fair since it was a more significant event than the ‘annual cultural events like ‘Jashan-e-Baharan,’ ‘The Canal Mela’ and other local festival in the backdrop of highly valuable Pak-China friendship. On countless occasions, the city roads have been infested by the provincial and local governments to promote various culture and literature related events with huge bill boards, posters, hoardings, banners and even larger than life size portraits of local politicians. Some men and women of letters agree that it was a public affair in the vein of the local festivals; however, they maintained that there should have been some ‘visible proof’ of our love for our respected Chinese brothers and the visiting Chinese Literati on the roads to cheer them up and give them a feeling of love and warmth on the part of Pakistani people and the Pakistani government. It is also appropriate to mention that the departments concerned which organised the moot (Academy of Letters Pakistan and Ministry of Information & Broadcasting have also declared the year 2015 as the year of Pak-China Friendship.
The Chairman Academy of Letters Dr Qasim Bhugio, a well-known figure in the literary world and renowned writers himself has been on the forefront of the moot with the all-out effort to make this event a memorable happening. The initiative taken by Dr Bhugio and his team, spearheaded by Zahida Parveen, Director General of the Academy of Letters, earns them a great appreciation from the visiting Chinese writers and the Pakistani men and women of the literary world.
When asked about his comments, the former Chairman of Academy of Letters and the Chairman World Punjabi Congress Fakhar Zaman maintained “My feeling of appreciation emerges from the fact that I have a number of friends in China. On the occasion of international conference of writers in Islamabad in 1995 which was inaugurated by Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, the Academy of Letters published two important books, namely Sufi poets of Pakistan and contemporary Pakistan literature into eight languages of the world which, naturally, included Chinese. Later in 2070 during my second stint as Chairman of Academy, we had them reprinted during moot on Sufism and peace. These books are very popular in China and have been reproduced there. They have gone a long way in promoting cultural and literary relations between the two countries.”
Fakhar said “I have visited China for a number of times, on my way to North Korea, with president Leghari, as head of PPP delegation and more importantly, twice as leader of writers delegation which included eminent writers like Abdullah Hussain, Masood Asher, Dr MA Siddiqui, Fehmida Hussain, Rashid Amjad, Khalida Asghar, Saleem Raz, Munir Badini, Qasim Bhugio and Prof Dr Ghulam Mustafa. Pakistan Academy of Letters was about to publish Urdu Chinese dictionary and translations of Chinese representative literature in Urdu and vice versa. As ZA Bhutto said “friendship between two countries was taller than Himalayas and Benazir Bhutto added to it that it was deeper than oceans. Let there be frequent exchanges of writers, artists and youths of these two friends”.