First-ever literature festival for doctors to begin on Nov 19

A two-day literary festival to encourage healthcare professionals to enhance their literary sense would be held this weekend by the Jahan-e-Maseeha Adbi Forum, announced eminent writer and poet Dr Khwajah Razi Haider at a presser on Tuesday. 

Although a general culture of the society, healthcare professionals also often fail to keep up with the habit of reading books once they step into professional lives. The festival was, however, a step towards restoring the severed ties between the two, Haider observed. 

The festival, starting November 19, would be held at the Pavilion End Club and would be open for not just medical professionals, but also their families, medical students and professionals belonging to other walks of life. Accompanied by Dr Iqbal Ahmed and other senior doctors, Haider stated the festival would be a unique literary activity to be held for the fraternity in decades.

The chief guests for the first and second day of the event would be Sindh Health Minister Dr Sikandar Mandhro and renowned academician, poet and writer Pirzada Qasim Raza Siddiqui respectively; Siddiqui is also the president of Jahan-e-Maseeha Adbi Forum.

Haider maintained that senior academicians including University of Karachi Vice Chancellor Dr Muhammad Qaiser, Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology Vice Chancellor Dr Javed Hassan, renowned poet Prof Sahar Ansari and eminent doctors including Prof Ejaz Vohra, Dr Anisuddin Bhatti and other health professionals would also be speaking at the two-day festival.

Besides books on medicine, dentistry, surgery and other related fields, other literary material including poetry and prose collections would be available to the visitors on discounted prices, the organisation’s spokesperson stated.

In addition to that, several books published by the Jahan-e-Maseeha Adbi Forum would be displayed at the literature festival that would be available free of cost for the participants.  A separate corner would children’s literature would also be available, Dr Haider stated.