Lahore’s star-studded Literary Festival explores South Asian identity

William Darlymple in conversation with F.S Aijazuddin at the Lahore Literary Festival on Feb. 23, 2020. (Photo Courtesy: Aisha Zaman)
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Updated 23 February 2020
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Lahore’s star-studded Literary Festival explores South Asian identity

  • Over a hundred speakers and 63 sessions were presented this year in the historic city
  • World-renowned authors Orhan Pamuk and Fatima Bhutto discussed the problematic East-West global cultural confrontation

LAHORE: The 8th edition of the Lahore Literary Festival (LLF) which ended its three-day run on Sunday, included a spectacular line-up of authors, and addressed wide-ranging themes about identity within the backdrop of the clash and interlacing of cultures.




Fatima Bhutto in conversation with Fatima Arif at the Lahore Literary Festival, Feb. 22, 2020. (Photo Courtesy: Imran Sheikh Niche Lifestyle)

This weekend, Pakistan’s historic, eastern city of Lahore played host to renowned writers, artists, historians, critics and opinion makers from Pakistan and abroad with over a hundred speakers and 63 sessions. Among the star-studded line-up were winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, Orhan Pamuk, Pakistani author Fatima Bhutto, Oyinkan Braithwaite, long-listed for the 2019 Man Booker Prize; author Musharraf Ali Farooqi, novelist and poet Nitasha Kaul, who has written on the plight of Kashmir in Modi’s India; and Adrian Hayes, who launched One Man’s Climb, a book about his journey to reach the summit of the world’s second-highest mountain, K2.
Among the myriad of topics and discussions highlighted in the festival, the theme of complex national identity within a multicultural environment struck a chord.




Orhan Pamuk in Lahore, February 2020. (Photo Courtesy: Lahore Literary Festival)

“There is a need to formulate a strong local culture that is a combination, not an imitation of the Eastern past and the Western present,” Nobel prize winner Pamuk said while addressing a full house on Sunday.

The opening and closing sessions featuring Orhan Pamuk were perhaps the most insightful and popular presentations. The Turkish novelist, screenwriter, academic and recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature, Pamuk is arguably one of Turkey’s most prominent novelists. When he received his Nobel Prize in 2006, he was praised for making Istanbul an indispensable literary territory, equal to Dostoevsky’s St. Petersburg or Marcel Proust’s Paris. 
Yet, according to Pamuk, when he decided to be a novelist and started writing in 1974, there were hardly any novels around “because we didn’t have the same individuality as Europeans.”
In his dialogue in Lahore, Pamuk drew parallels between problematic Turkish Muslim identities to complicated postcolonial South Asian, more specifically Pakistani, identity. For centuries, Turkey was the center of the Ottoman Empire, but after its decline, the West became the world’s new ideological center and Turkey receded to the margins. A similar predicament was faced by Lahore-- once the center of arts and culture in the region.




Full house in an auditorium of the Alhamra Art Center during the Lahore Literary Festival. Feb. 2020. (Photo Courtesy: Lahore Literary Festival)

Pamuk expressed that one of the main problems in the East-West encounter is the sense of a collective loss generated by the replacement of the local culture by a foreign one.
He asserted that the blend of the East and West, in spite of its positive features should not take place at the cost of the erosion of national identity.
Outside the halls of the Al-Hamra Arts Center situated in the heart of Lahore, colorful banners, concerts, and food stalls were out in full swing-- as swathes of people of all age groups crowded the grounds.
“We as a nation are thirsty for international presence and a high-quality caliber exchange of ideas, people, art and culture. This edition of the festival, from Nobel laureates to award-winning participants is going to elevate the level of thought and knowledge within the society, a vast improvement from the previous ones and will enable us to further establish Lahore in the global arena,” F.S Aijazuddin, a prominent Pakistani author told Arab News. 




Scenes in the grounds of the Alhamra Arts Centre during the Lahore Literary Festival in Feb. 2020. (Photo Courtesy: Lahore Literary Festival)

Following on from the topic of an Eastern identity crisis resulting from the aim to emulate the West, Pakistani writer Fatima Bhutto’s book launch event on Saturday also highlighted the declining power of the West.
“We have to make our own stories because only we can do justice to them. We can’t leave it to Hollywood,” she said on Sunday.
She elaborated that a vast cultural movement was emerging from beyond the Western world that was truly global in its range and charm and was the biggest challenge yet to America’s soft power supremacy of Hollywood. 
Her book, New Kings of the World: Dispatches from Bollywood, Dizi, and K-Pop is a book about these new mediators of mass culture arising from Asia— India’s Bollywood films, Turkish dizi (soap operas), and South Korean pop music.
Relating the discussion to Pakistan, she said the country had an enormously rich culture that was not promoted to its full potential. She said if Pakistan decided to work on its content, there was no doubt that its music, dramas, and films, would be embraced by the rest of the world.
“Many things in western culture, or what I call the American culture, is made on the backs of our cultures,” she said. 
She concluded the day’s session by highlighting that her book started in Peshawar and ended in Seoul and that the story that connects them depicts that humans relate to people from other countries and are open to other cultures beyond the West, even when their governments are afraid to do so. 


Pakistan PM directs task force to propose budget plan for low-cost housing

Updated 21 May 2025
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Pakistan PM directs task force to propose budget plan for low-cost housing

  • Pakistan faces a housing crisis, with the shortage particularly acute in urban areas
  • PM says ahead of the budget low-cost housing is his administration’s top priority

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Wednesday his administration is prioritizing the development of low-cost housing while directing a task force to present financing recommendations to include the facility in the upcoming budget.

Pakistan has been facing a housing crisis, with the World Bank suggesting two years ago it was short of an estimated 10 million housing units. The shortage is particularly acute in urban areas due to rapid population growth, unregulated expansion and high land and construction prices.

The federal budget, which will be presented to the National Assembly next month, is expected to outline measures to tackle the crisis as the new fiscal year begins in July.

“The government’s foremost priority is to facilitate access to housing through low-cost schemes,” Sharif said during a task force meeting to address the issue.

“Such projects will not only make residential units accessible to the common man but also stimulate economic growth and create employment opportunities,” he continued.

The prime minister instructed the task force to work with the finance ministry and banks to prepare detailed financing proposals for affordable housing, with the aim of making them part of the upcoming budget.

He also emphasized that developing the construction sector was key to sustainable economic growth.

Officials briefed the prime minister on ongoing reforms to the Condominium Act 2025 and Foreclosure Law, saying they were in their final stages and were expected to ease access to housing loans under the new schemes.


Pakistan says India using ‘terrorism’ as foreign policy tool after school bus attack in Balochistan

Updated 21 May 2025
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Pakistan says India using ‘terrorism’ as foreign policy tool after school bus attack in Balochistan

  • New Delhi rejects Pakistan’s allegation, calls it an attempt to deflect responsibility for internal failures
  • PM Sharif visits Balochistan after school bus bombing kills three children, leaves eight critically wounded

KARACHI: Pakistan urged the international community on Wednesday to condemn what it called India’s use of “terrorism” as a foreign policy tool, after a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device targeted a school bus in the southwestern Balochistan province, killing at least three children and injuring 39 others, including eight critically.

Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest province by landmass and rich in mineral resources, has long faced an insurgency led by separatist groups who accuse Islamabad of exploiting local resources while neglecting the population. The government denies the claims, citing investments in health, education and infrastructure.

In recent months, the insurgency has intensified, with groups like the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) carrying out high-casualty attacks on civilians and security forces, including taking hostages at a passenger train. Pakistan says it has evidence linking India to these attacks, though New Delhi has denied involvement and distanced itself from the Khuzdar school bombing.

However, Islamabad described the attack as a “sequel” to India’s missile and drone strikes earlier this month, accusing New Delhi of deploying militant proxies to destabilize the country, as Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Field Marshal Asim Munir visited the region to meet injured children in hospital.

“These terrorist groups — masquerading under ethnic pretenses — are not only being exploited by India as instruments of state policy, but also stand as a stain on the honor and values of the Baloch and Pashtun people, who have long rejected violence and extremism,” said a statement issued by the PM Office after Sharif’s visit to Quetta.

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Field Marshal Asim Munir being briefed on the Khuzdar school bus attack, in Quetta on May 21, 2025. (Photo courtesy: Handout/PMO)

“India’s reliance on such morally indefensible tactics, particularly the deliberate targeting of children, demands urgent attention from the international community,” it added. “The use of terrorism as a tool of foreign policy must be unequivocally condemned and confronted.”

The prime minister and the accompanying delegation was briefed by Balochistan’s Chief Minister Sardar Sarfraz Bugti and local military officials on the attack, which also killed two soldiers and injured 53 people in total.

The official statement said Pakistan’s security forces and law enforcement agencies “will relentlessly pursue all those involved in this barbaric act,” vowing to bring “the architects, abettors and enablers of this crime” to justice.

It added the incident had exposed India’s “cunning role” to the world, revealing how it orchestrated militant violence while simultaneously portraying itself as a victim.

 

 

India’s Ministry of External Affairs earlier in the day rejected Pakistan’s allegations, describing them as Islamabad’s attempt to deflect responsibility for its own failings and internal issues.

The latest attack follows a brief military standoff between the two countries earlier this month, which ended in a ceasefire on May 10.

While hostilities along the border have subsided, both sides continue to trade diplomatic barbs, accusing each other of sponsoring terrorism and destabilizing the region.

School bus targeted in a suicide blast in pictured in Pakistan's southwestern Khuzdar district on May 21, 2025. (Jawad Yousafzai)

The attack in Khuzdar, which targeted children en route to an army-run school, was condemned by US Chargé d’Affaires Natalie Baker and UNICEF in separate statements.

It was also reminiscent of one of the deadliest militant attacks in Pakistan’s history when over 130 children were killed in a military school in the northern city of Peshawar in 2014. That attack was claimed by the Pakistani Taliban group.


India expels second Pakistani diplomat amid ongoing tensions

Updated 21 May 2025
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India expels second Pakistani diplomat amid ongoing tensions

  • India declares Pakistani diplomat persona non grata, orders him to leave the country within 24 hours
  • India expelled another Pakistani diplomat on May 13, prompting a tit-for-tat response from Islamabad

ISLAMABAD: India has expelled a second Pakistani diplomat within ten days, declaring him persona non grata for activities “not in keeping with his official status,” the external affairs ministry in New Delhi announced on Wednesday.

The move comes amid heightened tensions between the two countries following a military standoff earlier this month. Despite a ceasefire agreement reached on May 10, diplomatic relations between the nuclear-armed neighbors remain strained.

“The Government of India has declared a Pakistani official, working at the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi, persona non grata for indulging in activities not in keeping with his official status in India,” the Indian ministry said in its statement.

“The official has been asked to leave India within 24 hours,” it added.

This is the second such expulsion in recent weeks. On May 13, India expelled a Pakistani diplomat on similar grounds. In response, Pakistan declared an Indian High Commission staffer in Islamabad persona non grata.

The Indian ministry also summoned the Charge d’Affaires of the Pakistan High Commission to issue a demarche, emphasizing that Pakistani diplomats must not “misuse their privileges and status in any manner.”

As of now, Pakistan’s foreign office has not responded to the latest development.


Pakistan’s health minister assures Palestinian counterpart of medical support

Updated 21 May 2025
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Pakistan’s health minister assures Palestinian counterpart of medical support

  • Syed Mustafa Kamal meets Dr. Maged Abu Ramadan at the World Health Assembly in Switzerland
  • Israel has repeatedly targeted hospitals and health workers in Gaza, causing international concern

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s health minister Syed Mustafa Kamal informed his Palestinian counterpart that a framework has been developed to provide medical assistance to the people of Gaza, according to an official statement on Wednesday, during a meeting on the sidelines of the 78th World Health Assembly in Switzerland.

Kamal’s meeting with the Palestinian health minister, Dr. Maged Awni Muhammad Abu Ramadan, took place at a time when Israeli forces have repeatedly targeted hospitals and health facilities in Gaza, crippling the enclave’s health care system.

Israeli attacks have also led to international concern over violations of humanitarian norms in the war-torn Palestinian territory.

“We stand with our Palestinian brothers and will provide all possible medical support to heal their wounds,” the health ministry quoted Kamal as saying.

He strongly condemned Israel’s targeting of hospitals and health care workers, urging the international community to take concrete action to end the atrocities against Palestinians, including women and children.

“The brutality and oppression must stop,” he was quoted as saying. “The world must hold Israel accountable.”

Earlier this week, Pakistan condemned Israel’s targeting of hospitals in Gaza and described its announcement of taking control of the entire Palestinian territory as a “grave threat” to regional peace.

The remarks by the Pakistani foreign office came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared his government wanted to take control of the Gaza Strip.


Pakistani military blames ‘Indian-sponsored’ militants for children’s death in northwest this week

Updated 21 May 2025
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Pakistani military blames ‘Indian-sponsored’ militants for children’s death in northwest this week

  • Protests broke out in North Waziristan after a suspected drone strike reportedly led to the killings of four children
  • The military says initial investigations have revealed the incident was carried out by ‘Fitna Al Khwarij’ militants

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s military on Wednesday denied responsibility for the death of four children in North Waziristan earlier this week, attributing the incident to a proscribed militant network which it said was operating on “the behest of their Indian masters.”

The incident occurred on May 19 in the Hurmuz village of Mir Ali tehsil, where a suspected drone strike reportedly led to the death of four children from the same family and injuries to five others, including a woman.

The tragedy sparked protests in the area, with locals staging a sit-in and refusing to bury the deceased until authorities provided clarity on the incident and ensured accountability for the loss of innocent lives.

In a statement released on Wednesday, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the military’s media wing, dismissed allegations implicating Pakistan’s security forces in the strike, labeling the accusations as “entirely baseless” and part of a “coordinated disinformation campaign” aimed at discrediting the military’s counterterrorism efforts.

“Initial findings have established that this heinous act has been orchestrated and executed by Indian-sponsored Fitna Al Khwarij,” the statement said, using a term commonly employed by Pakistani authorities to describe extremist factions like the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

The term “khwarij” is rooted in early Islamic history and refers to an extremist sect that declared other Muslims apostates.

“It is evident that these elements — acting at the behest of their Indian Masters — continue to exploit civilian areas and vulnerable populations as shields to conduct their reprehensible acts of terrorism,” the statement added. “Such tactics aims to unsuccessfully sow discord between the local population and the security forces, who together remain resolute to uproot the menace of terrorism.”

The military also reaffirmed its commitment to bringing the perpetrators to justice, emphasizing its ongoing efforts to combat militant violence in the region.