Daily Times

The first Afkar-e-Taza ThinkFest was held on Saturday at the Institute of Business Administration (IBA), Karachi, where speakers, including academics, journalists and activists, spoke in a number of sessions covering various topics.

In the opening session, Think-Fest, Karachi Chairman Dr Miftah Ismail, Think-Fest founder Dr Yaqoob Khan Bangash, and other speakers said that the main aim of the festival was to bring together a diverse group of scholars from a variety of disciplines in order for students and the public to learn and interact with them.

“We have carefully crafted this one-day intellectual feast for Karachiites. In addition to matters of national and international significance, we have a number of Karachi-specific panels too,” said Bangash.

British author and award-winning playwright Hanif Kureshi, in his keynote session titled ‘What Now’, talked about how Muslims are being ‘caricatured’ as a result of the far right movement gaining momentum in the West. “Now Muslims, like Jews and Blacks, will be punished, stigmatised, harassed and surveyed and we’re all scared for good reason,” he added. On the other hand, he clarified that it was “disgraceful” that people who called themselves Muslims were shooting other cultural workers, writers and artists.

Human, social and economic aspects of the ongoing anti-encroachment drive in Karachi were also discussed in detail at the festival in a session titled ‘Contemporary Urban Challenges’. Nida Kirmani, a noted academic, moderated the session while Marvi Mazhar, an architect and heritage consultant, Fizza Sajjad, a researcher associated with the Center for Economic Research in Pakistan, and Ali Arqam, a local journalist, were the panelists. The speakers said that the Supreme Court’s orders had not been properly translated and traders and shopkeepers had been forcibly evicted without any alternative plan and prior notice.

British author and award-winning playwright Hanif Kureshi, in his keynote session titled ‘What Now’, talked about the far right movement gaining momentum in the West

Mazhar, said a massive anti-encroachment drive had been going in Karachi in the names of ‘beautification of the city’, ‘anti-encroachment drive’ and ‘smart neighborhoods’, but without proper mapping and surveying.

“Karachi does not have any statistics or survey about the informal sector of the city,” she said, adding that there was no coordination among various layers — such as district, city and province — of the government,” he added.

A discussion titled ‘Women’s Activism in Pakistan: New Directions’ focused on how best to fight the patriarchal mindset prevalent in Pakistan. Lawyer and Advocacy Adviser Asia Sara Malkani said that in order to fight patriarchy women must join forces and show solidarity, adding that that patriarchy was not a weak institution and those in would not relinquish it that easily. Malkani also mentioned what the late women and human rights activist/lawyer Asma Jahangir had said about the vital importance of women rights for a strong democracy. The session was moderated by IBA’s Faiza Mushtaq.

Prominent journalists Mazhar Abbas, Owais Tohid, Fahd Husain, Zarrar Khuhru and Najia Ashar spoke to the session titled ‘Pakistan’s News Media : The Threats Within and Without’.

In a session titled “Afghanistan : Elusive Peace, Pervading Neighbours, prominent analyst Zahid Hussain said that earlier Pakistan had strategic depths in Afghanistan but now the Taliban has strategic depths in Pakistan. Other speakers were Dr Kirsten Harpviken from Oslo, Imtiaz Gul, head of a security think-tank in Islamabad and veteran diplomat Ashraf Jahangir Qazi.

Another top panel discussed where Pakistan is really headed with Najam Sethi, Dr Ishrat Husain and Nadeem Farooq Paracha with Maria Memon.

Dr Huma Baqai teamed up with Dr Joseph Massad from Columbia to talk about the situation in the Middle East.

Published in Daily Times, December 16^th 2018.