Daily Times

The fourth edition of the annual Sargodha Literary Festival (SLF) began on Wednesday virtually for the first time due to the restrictions placed amid the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic.

The event is aimed at creating intellectual space for energetic youth, alluring eminent literary figures and to inspire them to take ownership of their literary creativities.

The day started with the welcome address by the Vice Chancellor Sargodha University Dr Ishtiaq Ahmad, during which, highlighting the importance of art and literature, Dr Ishtiaq said “Life is a race against time and every individual should make his mark in accomplishing goals. The universities have to come forward to engage students in flourishing and preserving art, culture, values and traditions by providing essential critical and technical skills.”

Following the inauguration, the proceedings followed a keynote speech in the Punjabi by Fayyaz Baqir, an internationally renowned community development practitioner and professor of Development Practice in Ottawa, Canada, in a session titled, ‘Surt di Sui, Prem dy Dhaagy’.

Dr Baqir, while expressing his thought said that “Sufism is an intimation of pain and a self-control ideology; it’s the doctrine of universality based on tolerance and interfaith harmony”. He urged youth to promote the diversified cultures of Pakistan and live balanced life by recognizing the difference between truth and lie.

Apart from the opening session, four other sessions were held on the first day. Adnan Rafique, the Country Director of the United States Institute of Peace for Pakistan chapter, moderated a session on ‘Unity in Diversity: Religious, Gender and Class Inclusion in Pakistan,’ in which, Kapil Dev a famous Minority Rights Activist, Rafiullah Kakar the Director of CPEC Unit in Balochistan, and Dr Ishtiaq Ahmad participated as panelists.

The deliberations were made around developing an understanding about the unity through discussion on varied social, economic, religious and political indifferences.

The venerable panelists including, Asghar Nadeem Syed, Pakistani playwright and poet, Yousaf Khushk the Chairman of the Pakistan Academy of Letters, Islamabad, Nasir Abbas Nayyer, Urdu prose writer, critic and scholar, Najeeb Jamal professor of Urdu at Forman Christian College University Lahore, explored the social trends shaping the identity of ‘Self’ embedded in a society with overlapping cultures in a session titled, ‘Pursuit of Identity in a Multicultural Society’.