Sir: The Youth Arts and Literary Exhibition that took place at a Karachi hotel on April 13 was an initiative taken by the Anti-Counterfeit and Infringement Forum (ACIF), which includes most of the leading companies of Pakistan and the IBA Literary Society. These two organisations took this initiative in order to serve three basic missions.
One, to display Pakistan’s historical timeline and to curate a photo exhibition centred on the themes of Mar Gaya Insaan (Man is dead) and Jaagay Gain Zaroor (We will surely wake up). These were designed to promote the culture of Pakistan and to highlight the current situation in our society with the hope that things might change someday. In addition, the short film competition had the theme of ‘I left my heart in Pakistan’, where the filmmakers were given room to be creative and to highlight any aspect of Pakistan. Two, to incorporate a panel discussion on Art piracy and the protection of creativity and ingenuity in Pakistan. The theatre and debate competitions were included to further this goal. Students were asked to depict stories and debate issues related to the way counterfeiting and piracy infringes artists’ rights. Third, to provide the youth of Pakistan a platform through which they could exhibit their work regardless of their training or levels of expertise. What we did promise youngsters was a fair chance to showcase and perform their talents in front of a large audience, regardless of what institution, class, gender and background they belonged to. We charged no registration fee, but did give away cash prizes worth up to Rs 20,000 so that these young artists could be further motivated to improve their skills.
ACIF and the IBA Literary Society fulfilled what we promised by properly executing all these competitions, exhibits, and panel discussions. Getting people to talk about art piracy was one of the main goals of the event, and in this we were successful.
In his article “Poke your eyes out” published on April 14, 2014, Taha Anis completely misrepresents the event and then goes on to advise IBA students that they should ‘stick to business’ instead of dabbling in ‘art and literature’. I attend IBA but I am not a business student. While IBA may be popular because of its BBA programme, the university boasts four other departments, including one in the social sciences and liberal arts (this is what I study). And contrary to Mr Anis’s assessment, any student, no matter her chosen discipline or profession, has the right to dabble in whatever she wants.
Ramsha Wasti
Karachi