Adab Festival Pakistan begins today in Karachi.

Byline: Peerzada Salman

KARACHI -- The three-day inaugural Adab Festival Pakistan (AFP) begins on Friday (today) here at Governor House. The founders and directors of the event Ameena Saiyid (OBE) and Asif Farrukhi are known for blazing a trail for literature festivals in the country by being integral parts of the Karachi Literature Festival (KLF).

The KLF is now in its 10th year, which is an achievement in itself. When its first edition was held, it was a one of its kind spectacle that spawned quite a few similar annual programmes meant to promote books and the culture of book reading in the country. These days we have the Lahore Literary Festival, Faisalabad Literature Festival and Hyderabad Literature Festival etc taking place on a yearly basis, enabling a vast number of people to interact with authors and choose from a variety of books launched or displayed at these events.

Now Ms Saiyid and Mr Farrukhi have laid the foundation for the Adab Festival Pakistan, which, if the crux of their press meets is anything to go by, intends to project the importance of book reading, and at the same time highlight the richness of cultural diversity that Pakistan boasts.

On the first day of the festival, apart from its two founders, Arifa Syeda Zehra, Ishrat Husain and internationally renowned scholar Vali Nasr will deliver keynote speeches. The inaugural day will also have an important session on the anti-encroachment drive in Karachi that is making headlines for quite some time. Nasim Zehra's book From Kargil to the Coup will be the first book to be launched at the festival.

Vali Nasr will also be in conversation with Salim Raza on the...