Minister chairs Sindh Cultural Advisory Committee meeting

KARACHI: Sindh Minister for Culture, Tourism and Antiquities Syed Sardar Ali Shah has said that in order to preserve culture, to promote tourism and to conserve archeology of the province the overall society, literati, artists, and intellectuals have to involve themselves for this cause.

He showed his displeasure on dismal attitude of the stakeholders for ignoring the indigenous artisans and handicraft makers of the province. He regrettably said that nobody bothered about the living conditions of the handicrafts makers, and he feared that if they remain unaddressed then with the death of an artisan his art would be dead once for all, but we have to bring that in change in overall attitude of our society.

This he said while presiding over the meeting of Cultural Advisory Committee of Karachi here at National Museum of Pakistan. The Secretary Culture Ghulam Akbar Laghari and the members of the committee Dr. Sher Mehrani, Mr. Fazil Jamili, Dr. Ayoob Shaikh, Muslim Shameem, Mr. Gul Hassan Kalmati, Mr. Kausar Buriro, Mr. Abdul Hameed Bhutto and others officers participated in the meeting.

The Minister said that there has been a monotonous and blindly-following attitude of duplicating the cultural evenings only with the persons in the media spotlight, but this attitude must be changed now as we will bring the innovation by focusing on the neglected areas of the department. He proposed the advisory committee to devise the event-calendar of the coming three months and there should be and amalgamation of Theaters, seminars and other programs on archeology, history, indigenous artisans, and other literary topics and personalities but that must be with an innovative approach of connecting them and their rationale with the modern age.

The Secretary Culture Ghulam Akbar Laghari said that the main objective of the Advisory Committees is to remove the communication gap between the department and literati. He said that the advisory committee is empowered enough to visit and inspect any of the ongoing projects of the department and can recommend us the further improvement if needed.

The committee discussed in detail about their cultural-event-calendar of coming months and then decided unanimously to hold a seminar on Faiz Ahmed Faiz and Sibt-e-Hassan here at Karachi, in which the writers living in US, Canada and London would participate simultaneously  through video link. The committee also decided to arrange a lecture series on Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai and a program on Shaikh Ayaz, and also Sindhi-Urdu Mach-Mushaira (Poetic gathering beside traditional fireplace) in January. The Committee also decided to visit the Ghalib Library in Nazimabad and recommend suggestions for its restoration. It was also decided that the department will arrange an evening with the artist and singer Rubina Qureshi and Tassawur Khanum. The committee would also arrange a meeting with Dr. Jameel Jalibi, Yousifi and other literary figures.

One of the committee-member Mr. Gul Hassan Kalmati drew the attention of meeting towards the encroachment on the area of Chowkundhi Graveyard. On this the Minister Culture said that he would himself visit Chowkundi Graveyard to assess the actual ground realities. He also appreciated the idea of Gul Hassan Kalmati for patronizing the crocodile-festival which is held regularly in spring season at Manghopir, and he asked him to do the homework and present in the next meeting of the committee.

The committee applauded the Minister and Secretary Culture for constituting such advisory committees, and called this step as a renaissance of the culture department. The members observed that there must be a self-assessment regarding the cultural needs of the communities living in the province and then one can plan for their fulfillment. Renowned writer Mr. Muslim Shamim said that the focus of the departmental activities should be on the integration of Sindhi and Urdu languages, and in this regard the department certainly deserves applause for translating the works for Faiz Ahmed Faiz into Sindhi, and the works of Shaikh Ayaz into Urdu language. This is really a marvelous job, he remarked. The other members of the committee complained about the encroachment of archeological sites, rampant corruption and funds embezzlement during previous period in the name of cultural activities and publication of worthless works.