LAHORE: The three-day Faiz International Festival concluded on Sunday with people participating in socio-political discussions and literary activities.

The event featured thought provoking sessions, literary panel discussions, poetry sessions, and theatrical and musical performances at Lahore Arts Council on The Mall.

A large number of people from all walks of life attended the festival of socialist and iconic poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz.

On Sunday there were discussion sessions with South African filmmaker Firdoze Bulbulia that was conducted by Bilal Sami, travelogue writer Mustansar Hussain Tarrar session ‘50 years in Media’, ‘Faiz Youth and Identity’ in which Nadia Jamil, Taimur Rehman and Sehar Tariq were panelists. This session was moderated by Aisha Sarwani. Another session was on ‘Lahore Art Circle’ in which Quddus Mirza, Samina Iqbal and Asim Akhtar were panelists. A photographic exhibition was held on Faiz Ahmed Faiz titled ‘Koi Tasveer Gati Rahi Raat Bhar’ was showcased at Alhamra Art Gallery. There was a session on Late Justice Javed Iqbal moderated by Dr Jaffar Ahmed in which Khalid Ahmed and Justice (Retd) Nasira Javed were panelists. Another session was on painter and artist Shakir Ali titled ‘Struggle for Modernism’ in which Smaina Iqbal, Khishwar Naheed and Nayyar Ali Dadda were panelists. A session titled ‘An evening with Poetry and Piano’ was also held that had Adeel Hashmi and Asad Aneed leading the talk. There was session titled ‘Cinema and Society: Film and Social Change in Pakistan. The festival concluded with the performance of Abida Perveen. Entry to the legendary singer’s concert was only by entry ticket of Rs 1,500. Media was not allowed to cover it. Following are excerpts of the proceedings of two sessions.

‘As a nation we have to resolve our critical and sensitive issues first only then we would be able to move forward towards a prosperous Pakistan.

This was stated in a session titled ‘Politics, Activism and the Way Forward’ in which Hasil Bizenjo (NP), Abid Manto (AWP), Aitzaz Ahsan (PPP), Afrasiab Khattak (ANP), Salman Rafique of PML-N, Shafqat Mehmood of PTI and Abid Manto of Awami Workers Party. The session was moderated by Mehtab Akbar Rashdi.

Aitzaz Ahsan said the divisions and fault lines in Pakistani society are horizontal and vertical and become ulcer for us. “Instead of having sense of shame and outrage as a nation on the news being circulated on poverty, we have become used to it.

“The vertical division brings economic gap between rich and poor while horizontal division bring gap between left and right wings in our society and this become debilitating for our society.

“Our society has become stagnant in debate of how religion should be practiced and what liberties the women have,” Aitzaz said. 

Economic inequality perpetuate where state had sponsored and encourages certain classes in our society. Aitzaz declared “Our issues only would be resolved in implementing socialism in our country.”

Aitzaz was of the view that Pakistan has reached this point just because our state had a soft corner for extremist elements in the past and now those extremist groups are posing serious threats to our national security. “We failed to understand that Pakistan was came into being as a Muslim state not as Islamic state and foundation of this thesis was speech of Quaid-e-Azam  Muhammad Ali Jinnah August 11, 1947.

Aitzaz said had Quaid-e-Azam lived for a few more years than the constitution of Pakistan would have been made by Hindu Law Minister Joginder Nath Mandal. “We blame India as a country where Muslims are being mistreated but what have we done to our minorities. We have done ethnic cleansing of Hindus in our country,” the senator held.

The panelists agreed upon the fact that unplanned growth of population would be time bomb that could explode anytime.

Manto said in a retrospect of what happened in Pakistan in the last one year we have not made any progress. “Feudalism is the main hindrance which had knotted a large segment of our society to outdated rules,” he said.  

Afrasiab Khattak said practically our country is going in a transition where controlled democracy depicting a position where elephant has come in a room. “We have two power houses in Pakistan, civilian leadership running the country from Parliament and military leadership is running from GHQ and this is not good for our country.”

“Our elite have made small cantonments around them. Nothing has changed after 18th amendment as the real government is being run by Army,” he said.  

Afrasiab was of the view that after the separation of East Pakistan in 1971 the vacuum was filled by religiously motivated extremist groups. “Balochistan is bleeding but no voice has been raised. What is happening in Waziristan is totally out of debate from the national discourse. There were 3,500 shops in Mir Ali and 7,000 shops in Miran Shah in the North Waziristan but now you cannot buy even a match box because the markets have been destroyed. We have to be unbiased as a nation and give justice to Federally Administrative Tribal Areas and for this a social movement could be useful,” Afrasiab was of the view.

Bizenjo said our state promoted and encouraged evils forces in the past. Taliban were created by state, he said.

Shafqat said many fault lines exist in our society and prime one is cultural fault line  where elite has made ‘cantonments’ around them stopping common people to reach them.

Salman Rafique said politicians weighed more responsibility on them and they should become role models for society. Abid Manto said different ideologies could not flourish in our country. “We are still facing the problem of poverty. This would not be possible removing class divisions in our society,” he said.

Political parties and intelligentsia should start discourse to resolve the fault lines in our society and we need a new narrative for it to counter this challenge of extremism and intolerance which destroying our country internally, Shafqat said. 

In session ‘Faiz and the relevance of his poetry today’, Dr Arfa Syeda said Faiz poetry reflected the real grievances of masses. “A poet who did not bear the woes in his life would not understand other griefs,” she said. She said understanding Faiz poetry is need of the hour and we should rejuvenate our lost values and promote tolerance in society. The session was moderated by Noorul Hassan.(Photo by Mohsin Raza)