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Asma Jahangir’s efforts for justice-based society lauded

By Our Correspondent
February 20, 2018

Islamabad: Asma Jahangir was the icon of Pakistan’s movement for human rights, democracy and rule of law as she spent all her life striving to turn Pakistan into a place to live for all.

This was the crux of the speeches made during the concluding ceremony of the Pakistan Mother Languages Literature Festival here. The ceremony was dedicated to Asma Jahangir, who had passed away on Feb 11 after suffering a cardiac arrest.

Writer and human rights activist Jami Chandio said Asma Jahangir was symbol of struggle and role model for all those who want to contribute to promotion and protection of human rights. “Its easy to tell truth about dictators as they are unpopular any way but Asma also challenged democratically elected leaders when they were doing something wrong,” he said.

Rights activist Mazhar Arif said Asma was always first to challenge any tyranny and injustice. “She never cared about consequence while speaking truth and never accepted any compromise on the principles,” he said.

Saleem Malik of the Strengthening Participatory Organisation said the only way of paying tribute to Asma Jahangir was to continue her mission and keep her legacy alive. Chairperson of the Indus Cultural Forum Niaz Nadeem said the sudden death of Asma Jahangir was a huge loss for the movement of human rights, democracy and rule of law in the country.

He thanked all scholars for attending the two-day festival and sponsors for supporting the festival. He announced that the fourth Pakistan Mother Languages Literature Festival would be held on Feb 16 and 17 in Islamabad next year.

He announced that in the next festival, awards would be given for the books and works of Pakistani mother languages, whose details would be revealed later. The two-day festival was organised by the Indus Cultural Forum in collaboration with the Lok Virsa and the Strengthening Participatory Organisation.

This year, the festival was sponsored by the Sindh government’s culture department, Foundation Open Society Institute, Lok Virsa and Heinrich Boll Stiftung. FOSI's Nargis Sultana said the festival aimed at promoting reading and learning culture in mother languages.

She said promotion of mother languages literature would help create peace and harmony in the country. ICF Secretary General Munawar Hassan said over 5,000 people visited the festival and participation this year was as encouraging as in past.

He said over 100 writers, poets and artists presented their work and participated in discussions on divers literary and cultural topics. He said around 20 languages were represented in the festival. Next year, more languages will be encouraged to participate. On the occasion, book stalls, showcasing books from different Pakistani languages, were also established to provide easy access to literature in these languages.