KARACHI: President of Arts Council of Pakistan Ahmed Shah said that literature, art and culture are the first line of defense against any kind of extremism. He informed that the arts council will organize the 10th International Urdu Conference from the December 21-25 at the Arts Council of Pakistan in which leading intellectuals, researchers, and writers from the world including India will participate. It is an honor for the management of arts council and the citizens of the Karachi that Urdu Conference is being held for the last ten years. Today Pakistan has been celebrated its 70th year of independence and our team is coming completely for 10 years in arts council of Karachi. Therefore this conference will be attributed to the 70th independence of Pakistan it will be reviewed literature culture, music, poetry, painting, dance, drama, education, Pakistani languages, journalism, film and what we have been done in other fields will be discussed. He was addressing the press conference at arts council of Pakistan on Thursday evening. He said that we started international Urdu conference ten years ago, so many announcements had been seen till then but it was always impossible to follow it. The situation in the city was very bad when it was the first day of the international Urdu conference at arts council of Pakistan Karachi ten years ago, forty people were killed in the city on the same day by terrorism. At this time we said that enemies want to take our civilization and culture into the cave, they want to eliminate this living society and to erase our identity, but we will not let them do so. Through the help of these literary conferences, music festivals and other programs to protect our cultural heritage, we are successful with the help of God and today we are here in front of you with the tenth international Urdu conference where literary, social and cultural activities will be restored. The conference is being attended by the prominent writers and scholars around the world including DR Shamim Hanif, Dr Qazi Afzal Hussain, Dr anees Ashfaq, Dr. Ali ahmed Fatimi, Khushbeer singh Shad, Farhat Ahsas, Ranjeet singh Chohat, Raza Ali abdi from London, Arif Naqvi from London, Heorji Kataoka from Japan, Ibrahim Muhammad Ibrahim from Egypt, Khilil Touqer from Turkey, Nasar Malik from Dinmark, Arshad Farooq from Funland, Basit Jalil and Wakeel Ansari from America, Ghanzanfar Hashmi, Amir Hussain and Basit Jalil from England, Rahit Zahid from Scotland and Samon Shah from Paris. He expressed his views during the inaugural press conference of Urdu conference at the Akbar hall of Arts Council of Pakistan Karachi. He was accompanied by Prof Ejaz Farooqui secretary arts council, Joint secretary Qudsia Akbar, Accountant Shahnaz Siddiqui, Chairman literary committee Haseen Moeen and the other members of governing body. He added that the role of media is very important in the world as a brand it was hard in the first conference to call the intellectual from the world but today the leading intellectuals and researchers are contacting themselves as they know the history of the conference that is the reason double number of people attending conference every year. We also are pleased that 10 years ago when we started the conference, it was the first ever conference of Pakistan in Pakistan, and today there are conferences in different cities of Pakistan and we understand that this is one of our success and the Urdu Conference of Art Council is indefinite. This year the conference will continue for 5 days till 25 December, which is the birthday of Qaid e Azam and a special program will be held in the name of “Quaid e Azam ka Pakistan.” On this occasion, Chairman Senate Raza Rabbani, Khar, Hasil Khan Baniznjo, Javed Jabbar, Ghazi Saladin, Jafar Ahmed, Harris Khaliq and Huma Baqail will attend and discuss this special event. On the occasion of initial session, such intellectuals who attended the last 9 conferences died a documentary film will be presented on their lives, while Zia-Muhai ud din will discuss Mushtaq Yosif Sahib and compatible Our literary nature and role of women, Vedic, a study context, evolutionary painting in Pakistan, the York Scholar’s Literary Forum function, the art of dance and the state of our dance, our academic teaching the situation, Japan and Pakistan’s literary relations, our society and Pakistani languages, a trip to TV drama, a dialogue with Bushra Ansari, changing face of journalism, a glance on Urdu fiction, Urdu bases and sciences situation, Urdu film journey , Music journey in Pakistan, an evening with Iftikhar Arif, an evening with Anwar Masood, music video, books Launching, A review of Urdu criticism, remembrance of passed intellectuals , theater situation in Pakistan, and other program will be organized the tenth international Urdu conference. Published in Daily Times, December 15th 2017.