no minorities; everyone has equal rights according to the Constitution of the country. He suggested that the minorities in the country should be considered ‘better Pakistanis’.
Punjab Minister Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman said the government was not afraid at all. However, he added, political and religion should not be mixed, and these should be treated separately. He said sit-ins are held in a democratic dispensation only, as dictatorships never allow such things.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader Asad Umar said on the occasion the current state of affairs at Faizabad and all such drags on the country’s progress find their roots in Ziaul Haq era. He said it is not easy for any government, no matter how progressive and powerful it may be, to destroy that narrative completely. This narrative, he added, has been woven intricately with religious beliefs of poorly-educated Pakistanis and they deem it an attack on their faith. He said the way forward was difficult and all mainstream political parties and the establishment would need to formulate an aggressive protocol to eliminate this narrative for good.
Dr Asim Sajjad of Awami Worker Party said that here arises a question whether we wanted to live in General Ziaul Haq’s Pakistan today. He said a powerful lobby was pushing aside politics of ideology.
Meanwhile, various sessions at the Faiz International Festival 2017, like Faiz’s poetry, continued at Alhamra halls. Every single one of the 27 sessions on the concluding day of the festival was packed beyond capacity as the entertainment-starved Lahorites thronged the venue. There were hundreds who couldn’t even make it into the sessions and had to wait outside. The festival, however, had something for them too as live music renditions to Faiz and workshops continued outside the four halls.
The festival had something for everyone, from those politically inclined to the artsy, literature savvy, the glamour dazzled and those into performing arts. From the Kathak performance of Yasmeen Sheikh to the nostalgic rendezvous of events that shaped the country’s literature with the likes of Zahra Nigah, Asghar Nadeem Syed and Dr Arifa Syeda and the book launch session with the authors themselves.
Mahira Khan’s session was by far the biggest attraction for the millennials, who had thronged the entrance to Alhamra Hall-II. It all was absolutely worth wait and struggle to get in, as Mahira owned the session with her charm, frankness that gleamed of poise and class and reliability.
Talking about the vicissitudes she had to face in recent past, she said it was one of those years where she had been dealing with a lot of negativity but the best thing is that she got through it and ‘Verna’ was released and the whole social media fiasco before that too died. “When Shoaib Mansoor emailed me regarding Verna, he wrote, ‘I gave you the first role of your life, and now I am offering you a role of a lifetime’, she said.
Mahira said she was not at all scared of taking up this film, what she was scared of, however, was that she had not been through that excruciating experience so would she be able to do justice to the role. More importantly because the acting performance would most probably connect with a lot of silent victims and she didn’t want their agony to be underplayed. She talked about the powerful dialogues in the movie over a subject that has been such a huge taboo in the society.
The session titled ‘What is to be done. The left in Pakistan’ was a total disaster. The selection of panelist was poor. Former pop-singer-turned Karl Marx-lover-turned political activist Jawad Ahmed seemed to have little understanding of the actual ideology of the left and kept contradicting himself over and over again while stating condescending remarks the audience and other guests. Ammar Ali Jaan, a young student leader, too had very little knowledge of what the session was about and seemed far from being well-read on the subject. The moderator Asim Sajjad was by far the most knowledgeable of the lot in addition to Abid Mir from Balochistan who was given very little time to speak.
The musical performances by Tanya Wells and Tina Sani were a total sold out and was a transcendent experience as the poetry of Faiz rode the subtle waves of music to the mastery of the celebrated voice of Tina Sani.