4th Latif Art and Literature Festival kicks off at Arts Council

The 4th Latif Art and Literature Festival 2023, organised by the Arts Council of Pakistan’s Karachi chapter in collaboration with Siraj Institute of Sindh Studies, kicked off here on Saturday.

The festival was inaugurated by Caretaker Federal Minister for Education Madad Ali Sindhi and President Arts Council of Pakistan Karachi Muhammad Ahmed Shah.

Well-known writers Noor ul Huda Shah, Jam Madad Ali, Fehmida Hussain, Taj Joyo, Ayaz Latif Palijo, Jami Chandio and Shams Memon were also the chief guests of the event.

The federal minister for education said Shah Abdul Latif was not only a great poet but also a bold philosopher and journalist of his time, and he always taught people to love their mother tongue.

He further said we are not working as much on the personality of Bhittai as we should have. He called for serious research on his incredible work, and said Bhittai had been a popular personality among the Sindh people for the past 250 years.

Bhittai spread the message of love when there was no media, Madad Ali Sindhi said and condemned the Mianwali incident. He said Shah Latif’s message of peace and love was needed to stop events like this.

He said we do not permit anyone else to cross the border, and there is no country all over the world where people live freely after tearing their passports. He said we also have problems, people are worried, and we must take strict measures to deport illegal Afghans to their country.

Unfortunately, the federal minister said, we have created three class systems in the country, corruption has destroyed the country, and the private school has been restricted to the specific curriculum.

Ahmed Shah said Siraj has misconceptions related to the Arts Council, but now his perception has changed and he has realized the Arts Council has completely changed. There was no arrival of Mahmood Ghaznavi but there was a positive thinker who ran it with great affection, and now this institution has become a philanthropist, he said, adding that we have been working with Siraj Institution since a very early age.

The Shah Latif Festival is a great opportunity to represent the Sindhi art and culture, he said, adding Ameer Khusro invented instruments and tuned them three hundred years back. He said Shah Latif was lucky to find intellectual and thoughtful people in his time. He said critics are the need of literature, and our new generation is determined to work on Shah Latif’s poetry. He stressed that we should never change the essence of Shah Latif’s personality.

Jami Chandio said Shah Latif was the poet of critics, and passion and consciousness were reflected in his poetry. Fahimda Hussain said that we need to improve the quality of the education system, the Sindhi language should be compulsory at school, college and university level, and new youth are unfamiliar with their mother tongue due to the unavailability of Sindhi education.

She further said that Shah Latif was not only a religious poet but also famous in the world as a Sufi poet. She also highlighted that different sessions on Sindh culture, music and art were part of the festival. On this occasion, Sindhi traditional dresses’ stalls were set up. Meanwhile, books and Sindhi handicrafts were put on display and they attracted visitors. Folk artistes presented mesmerizing performances.