Who says Quetta is backward? If somebody still thinks so, they should listen to the guest speakers of the Pakistan Literary Festival (PLF) Quetta Chapter. The PLF Quetta was organized by the President Art Council of Pakistan Syed Ahmed Shah and his esteemed team on 15 and 16 May 2024 in the Balochistan University of Information Technology, Engineering and Management Sciences (BUITEMS) Quetta.
Such events are infrequent to happen in Quetta due to the prevailing security threats, but this time, efforts were made by the provincial government and police department to ensure foolproof security, which is one of the primary reasons why this successful event ended peacefully without any unforeseen incident.
Overall, the event was quite engaging for the people of Balochistan, especially for youth. It allowed them to listen to real stakeholders from different walks of life. The speakers include prominent local politicians, journalists from different Media groups, national celebrities, and contemporary poets.
It was a crowded event and to attend every session could not be possible, but still I managed to attend some of the very important sessions.
The first session on the first day I attended was titled, ‘Mehr Garh: Historical and Cultural Heritage of Balochistan,’ and the panelists were Nawabzada Haji Lashkari Raisani, Kaleem Ullah Lashari, Amna Ibrahim and Farooq Baloch. The session was very informative as the speakers linked Mehr Garh’s historical and cultural links with the structural formation of Baloch society and emphasized that it can not be delinked at any cost.
The second session was of the young Urdu poet Ali Zaryoon, who is also known as the port of juveniles, refreshed the youth with his lively poetry that revolves around love, betrayal and life experience. The last session of the first day was slotted for the local poets of Balochistan from different ethnicities, but predominantly they were Baloch. Though the number of audiences was a bit less than that of the other sessions, it was my personal favorite in the sense that it provided space for the local talent to come up to the public level.
However, the thing that bitterly bothered me was the lack of interest of our youth in books, which is alarming, keeping in mind the future of our generation. As the prominent American women’s rights advocate, journalist, and critic Margaret Fuller said about book readers, “Today a reader, tomorrow a leader” is pertinently relatable. Looking at the world’s leaders and successful people, they all give massive importance to the readings.
The book’s sales were ostensibly poor as compared to the food items that were sold adjacent to the bookstall area. Even one bookseller from Karachi told us that he came to Quetta in 2022 also when the Quetta Literature Festival (QLF) was held, but hardly anybody bought a book from them then. One of the reasons for the lack of reading culture is, no doubt, the massive role of social media in our lives, but quality books are inaccessible due to the high prices of the rupee devaluation and import ban.
The second and the last day of the festival held more constructive sessions. ‘Session On Visual & Performing Arts’ was on the theme of the lost essence of the role of visual media in the accurate representation of societal issues from the mainstream entertainment media. The panelists were Jamal Shah, Noor-Ul-Huda Shah, Zafar Mairaj, and Ayub Khoso. The panelists also shed light on the diminishing role of Balochistan in the national entertainment media and how it could be revived.
The next session was the continuation of the previous session, but focused more on the news media. The theme of this session was ‘Role of National Media on Balochistan’; panelists for this session were comprised of Mazhar Abbas, Shahzeb Jilani, Saleem Shahid, Shahid Rind and Rafat Saeed. This session proved to be a confessionary session, as all the panelists, who were all senior journalists from big media houses, said that Balochistan is being neglected by the national media in one way or another, either because of political pressures or financial gains. The point raised by Rafat Saeed was concerning. He told the audience that at numerous occasions, whenever there was a story on the local issues of Balochistan, he never faced any backlash from the locals; instead, it was always the government that threw pebbles on the road.
Summing up, the whole event was a good initiative not only for the youth of this soil but, more broadly, for Balochistan as well. Unless and until national stakeholders visit Balochistan, their misperceptions and misconceptions about this neglected province of Pakistan will not be addressed. As far as the impact of such events is concerned, such festivities must be conducted quite frequently. Though there are security sensitivities, the government must take responsibility to ensure that such events go smoothly, as they have done this time. Similarly, such events will also help change the locals’ perception that the Federation of Pakistan is actually interested in the national integration of Balochistan and its people.
Author: Muhammad Usama Khalid
Author’s Bio: Muhammad Usama Khalid is an Associate Research Fellow at Balochistan Think Tank Network (BTTN), Quetta. He can be reached at usama.khalid.uk456@gmail.com
