Adab Festival coming to Lahore and Karachi this weekend

The Adab Festival will be held back-to-back in the two largest cities of Pakistan this weekend.

According to a statement issued by Adab Festival founder and Lightstone Publishers Managing Director Ameena Saiyid, the Sixth Adab Festival will be held at the Alhamra Arts Council in Lahore on Saturday, August 17. It will be followed by the Seventh Adab Festival at Habitt on Tipu Sultan Road in Karachi on Sunday, August 18.

The timings of the festival in Lahore will be from 1:30pm till 8:30pm whereas in Karachi it will open at 5:30pm and end at 9:30pm.

Saiyid said this was the first time the Adab Festival was going to take place in Lahore.

Geo and the Mir Khalil ur Rahman Foundation (MKRF) are partners of the Lightstone Publishers for the sixth and seventh versions of the Adab Festival.

Saiyid and Geo-MKRF acknowledged and thanked the Adab Festival’s sponsors — the Bank of Punjab, Alhamra Arts Council Lahore and Habitt Karachi — for their support for the event.

The event will feature various sessions on books and contemporary issues. Speakers at the Adab Festival Lahore include Punjab Education Minister Raja Sikandar Hayat, Nasreen Mahmud Kasuri, Dr Faisal Bari, Dr Faisal Mushtaq, Baela Raza Jamil, Seema Aziz, Kamran Lashari, Dr Nadhra Khan, Mahnaz Shujra, Athar Tahir, Dr Amra Raza, Mina Malik, Raza Naeem, Salman Faruqui, Roshaneh Zafar, Dr Amjad Saqib, Aitzaz Ahsan, Mujib ur Rahman Shami, Dr Muhammad Waseem, Bushra Aitzaz, Bismah Maroof, Tania Mallick, Mumbai-based journalist Aayush Puthran, Omayr Aziz Saiyid, Yasser Latif Hamdani, and Dr Ali Usman Qasimi.

Speakers at the Adab Festival Karachi include Omar Shahid Hamid, Safinah Daanish Elahi, Aysha Baqir, Christie Marie Lauder, Aayush Puthran, Hadeel Obaid, Urooj Mumtaz, Omayr Aziz Saiyid, Salman Faruqui, Dr Ishrat Husain, Farooq Hasan, Mahmood Sham, Ameena Saiyid and Hameed Haroon.

The books that will be discussed at the two events include ‘Unveiled Jazba: A History of Pakistan Women’s Cricket’ by Aayush Puthran, ‘Jinnah: A Life’ by Yasser Latif Hamdani, ‘Dear Mr Jinnah’ by Salman Faruqui, ‘Second Coming’ by Athar Tahir, ‘Betrayal’ by Omar Shahid Hamid and ‘Beyond the Fields’ by Aysha Baqir.