Governor House to host Adab Fest in February

Instead of organising the Karachi Literature Festival (KLF), the two founders of the KLF on Tuesday announced that they will be organising this year another literature festival, titled ‘Adab Festival Pakistan’, on February 1, 2 and 3 at the Governor House, Karachi.

Addressing a news conference at the Karachi Press Club, the KLF founders, Ameena Saiyid OBE and Asif Farrukhi, announced that they would be holding the first Adab Festival (Adab Fest) Pakistan in Karachi to celebrate authors, writings and artistes. They were accompanied by writers and poets Zahida Hina, Fatima Hasan and Tanveer Anjum along with Khalid Mehmood, the head of a private pharmaceutical company which is sponsoring the festival.

“At the Adab Festival Pakistan, the audience will experience literature in diverse Pakistani languages, book launches, talks, interviews, discussions, poetry sessions, a book fair, music, dance, theatre and film,” said Saiyid, who retired last month from the Oxford University Press (OUP) after working there for thirty years.

The newly announced festival is not a replacement of the KLF as the OUP will organize the latter on March 1, 2 and 3 at Beach Luxury Hotel.

The Adab Fest’s organisers are no longer using the earlier proposed name, ‘Pakistan Literature Festival’, for the new event because of certain legal proceedings which restrained them from using the name of Pakistan Literature Festival.

More than a hundred Pakistani and international authors, intellectuals, and media personalities will be participating in the Adab Festival Pakistan, Saiyid said.