Perveen Shakir Urdu Festival concludes.

Byline: Aamir Yasin

ISLAMABAD -- The two-day Perveen Shakir Urdu Festival concluded on Saturday with renowned literary figures from across the country speaking about their journeys and personal experiences, as well as reading their work.

Aujhal Log, the Urdu translation of Senator Mian Raza Rabbai's book of short stories Invisible People, was one of the main features of the festival.

The launch featured speakers such as Prof Fateh Mohammad Malik, Dr Ziaul Hassan, Tahira Iqbal, Masood Ashar, Dr Safiya Ebad and Gulmeenay Sethi.

The event provided a platform to meto share my thoughts with the public, Senator Raza Rabbani says

Senator Rabbani said the festival was a large platform through which to share his thoughts with the public.

He said that social injustice and discrimination in society, and the widening gap between the haves and have-nots, were the inspiration for his book.

When asked about his work, he said literary runs in his blood.

'My father was a man of letters and I too inherited it from him to write. This book of stories is about the neglected and the oppressed people of society,' he said.

In their interaction with readers, fiction writers and poets described what inspired them to write and how their literary career began. These sessions were enriched with ghazals and poems by Perveen Shakir, in whose memory the festival was organised.

Earlier, during a Nostalgia Workship, writers and poets shared vivid memories of their childhood, and how those memories contributed to their literary journeys.

Incarnations of characters from various novels were performed...