'Adab Festival is owned by Karachi'.

KARACHI -- The fourth edition of Adab Festival which will take place for two days from Nov 26 at Frere Hall has a rich and diverse programme. Its focus is on climate change.

Apart from the keynote speakers - Tariq Alexander Qaiser, Sherry Rehman, Zafar Masud and Arifa Syeda Zehra - there are special sessions with poets Iftikhar Arif and Kiswhar Naheed. Aitzaz Ahsan will be speaking on the Indus saga.

This was said by the founding member of the festival Ameena Saiyid at a press conference at Frere Hall on Thursday evening.

She said Adab Festival celebrates public spaces. 'We want to develop community spaces and this is a festival that's owned by Karachi. We want to create a model that other people can follow across Pakistan. We also want to provide a platform to our authors and artists, especially the young emerging authors.'

Fourth edition to be held on Nov 26, 27 at Frere Hall

Mentioning some of the highlights of this year's event, Ms Saiyid said, 'There will be a presentation and talk by Tariq Alexander Qaiser on mangroves of Karachi. We will pay tribute to Asif Farrukhi who was the co-founder of the festival. We will be launching a large number of books such as Jinnah: A Life by Yasser Hamdani. Aitzaz Ahsan will give a talk on the Indus Saga and the making of Pakistan. Novelists Bina Shah and H.M. Naqvi also have sessions. We will be launching a book by Dr Fauzia Saeed who is coming from Islamabad for the purpose. Nadeem Farooq Paracha's book will also be launched. Javed Jabbar will be seen in conversation with Dr Huma Baqai talking about political memoir; he's written three. There will be sessions with poets Iftikhar Arif and Kishwar Naheed. Our keynote speakers on the opening day will be Sherry Rehman and Tariq Alexander Qaiser, and on the concluding day Zafar Masud and Arifa Syeda Zehra. Apart from that, we have a standup comedy piece by Natalia Gul. It's a packed programme'.

Deputy Director of the British Council, Maria Rahman said: 'The British Council's aim is to build connection, understanding and trust between the people of the UK and other countries through our works in arts and...