LLF 2019 concludes with thought-provoking discussions

LLF 2019 concludes with thought-provoking discussions

Pakistan does not need any intervention, says Fatima Bhutto on launch of her book ‘The Runaways’  LAHORE: The last day of Lahore Literary Festival (LLF) started with a session “Our Neighbours to the West” in which moderator Khaled Ahmed discussed the hindrances of democracy and diplomacy in the Middle East with Eugene Rogan, author of “The Arabs: A History”, and Shahrbanou Tadjbakhsh.  In the session “Chand Girhein”, Sarmad Khoosat, a Pakistani actor and director, was of the view that “our writers have brought the importance and meaning to the freedom of expression.”  The session “Creating new post-colonial narratives” was started with a discussion of colonial narratives in which the moderator of the session, Claire Chambers, discussed whether the people have truly challenged the imperialism. Panellist of the session Jamal Mahjoub said, “People don’t know their own history. One of the great intellectual failures in the west to generalise came out after 9/11 when values of human rights were pushed into the background by stereotypes.”  During the book launch of Fatima Bhutto’s “The Runaways”, the hall was filled up with the people. During the session, Fatima Bhutto argued, “I don’t think that Pakistan needs savings. Our country is much greater and stronger than anyone and it does not need any interventions.”  Another book launch session “Women Past Categorisation” was moderated by British Council Country Director Rosemary Hilhorst in which Leila Aboulela, Roopa Farooki, Alexandra Pringle and Maha Khan Phillips discuss how women authors cannot be defined by their gender alone.  The session “Us vs Them” was started with a discussion of migration and rights. The session was conducted by moderator Suzy Hansen with the panellists Becca Heller, Mohsin Hamid and Leila Aboulela.  An interesting session “Manto and the Recovery of Imagination” was started with a discussion about the life and work of Manto. Moderator Osama Siddique discussed the life of Manto with the panellist Ayesha Jalal, Khaled Ahmed and Salima Hashmi. Salima Hashmi was of the opinion, “I have great admiration for Manto because he is in conflict with everybody”.  Author of “The Women’s Movement in Pakistan: Activism, Islam and Democracy”, Ayesha Khan said, “The audience I had in mind was the younger generation, wanted to provide a short history on the struggle for woman rights”.  In the session “Global Strongmen” the moderator of the session Owen Bennett-Jones with the panellists Becca Heller, Rick Stroud, Jamal Mahjoub, Afshin Shahi, and Zahid Hussain discussed the inexorable rise of the right.  In another book launch session, author of “The Mercurial Mr. Bhutto and Other Stories,” Maheen Usmani discussed the life of Bhutto with the moderator.  In the session of “Swat – the Italian Connection” Prof Ashraf Khan talked about the 64 years of the Italian Archaeological Mission and the incredible Gandhara civilisation.  The last day of LLF was concluded with different performances and traditional dhamaal.