Written by: Haroon Shuaib
Posted on: November 13, 2024 | 
| 中文
(L to R) Salma Malik, Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed and Ikram Sehgal in a session titled Pakistan-Bangladesh Relations: A New Perspective.
There are no two opinions about literature’s ability to cast a profound and far-reaching influence. Literature offers a window into different perspectives and promotes critical reflection. This is precisely the kind of outcome one hopes the various literature festivals held across the country every year are able to achieve, especially considering that according to a survey 75 percent of Pakistanis do not read books. These literary festivals have become authorities in the literary field, promoting scholastic discourse and transfer of sapient capital from scholars to society. The 10th Islamabad Literature Festival 2024, held from 8-10 November offered just that.
The Gandhara Citizens' Club at F-9 Park, where the Islamabad Literature Festival (ILF) was held.
The separation of the eastern wing of the Pakistan from the western wing in 1971, and the creation of Bangladesh is a chapter that demands deep introspection and dialogue. A session on this subject was planned as part of 10th Islamabad Literature Festival 2024 with Salma Malik as the moderator and Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed and Ikram Sehgal as the panelists. The session titled, Pakistan-Bangladesh Relations: A New Perspective intended to reflect on what caused the breakup of Pakistan. Both of them reflected on how to reconstruct Pakistan and Bangladesh’s relations as two independent nations. Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed, who spent his early teens in Dhaka, fondly recalled how it was compulsory in those days that students from West Pakistan had to learn Bengali when studying in East wing and the Bengali students had to study Urdu. It was there in Dhaka that he discovered one of the greatest peasant leaders of the 20th century in Asia, Maulana Abdul Hameed Khan Bhashani. Maulana Bhashani was the leader of the Assam Muslim League, and he was instrumental in the inclusion of Sylhet in Pakistan, which is a tea growing area. He also commented that what happened in 1971 was largely due to the mistakes and follies of the western wing, and it still pains him. Ikram Sehgal’s mother was a Bengali and had deep connections with Bengali leadership and his father hailed from Punjab. He also recalled his formative years spent in both wings of the country. He confessed that he, just like most in either of the two wings, was not ready for what happened in 1971. Discussing the recent political changes in Bangladesh and the way forward, Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed elaborated on how it is being seen as a liberation from Indian hegemony and authoritarian rule of Sheikh Hasina Wajid by the Bengali youth. He said that by and large there has now been a closure of 1971 on the Bangladesh side, a significant historical change. Based on his exchanges with his Bangladeshi friends, he said that there has been a reassertion of Muslim Bengal identity. Thirdly, he highlighted how the youth of Bangladesh is now looking forward to a very close camaraderie and brotherhood with Pakistan, and proposed a foreign policy to strongly factor in the regional shifts with steps such as removal of visa restrictions, immediate restoration of flights between Dhaka and Karachi and Islamabad, provision of scholarships for Bangladeshi students to study in Pakistani universities, so that people to people contacts can be renewed.
Maleeha Lodhi speaking at a session during the Islamabad Literature Festival.
Ikram Sehgal talked about the trauma of the separation of the two wings and the need for lasting peace. He recommended that all visas and tariffs should be abolished between the two countries, and described how the country flags were banned from the cricket grounds in Dhaka during Pakistan India matches in the past by Hasina Wajid, because the Bengali people were waving Pakistani flags. Addressing the issue of stranded Biharis living in 66 crowded camps in Dhaka and 13 other regions across Bangladesh, Ikram Sehgal advocated their repatriation to Pakistan. Both the panelists agreed that the mental barriers that refrain Pakistan from having an open view of how it must pave its new relationship with Bangladesh must be broken. Ikram Sehgal said that Suhrawardy was his mother’s relative. Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed noted that when in 1946 Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, a Bengali barrister and politician considered a pioneer of Bengali civil rights movements, proposed the idea of an independent Muslim country comprising of Bengal and Assam, Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah and Lord Mountbatten, both accepted it, but it was Gandhi who shot the idea down.
A book stall at the festival.
Another very pertinent session considering the COP29 currently underway was moderated by Maha Hussain titled Shaping Pakistan’s Climate Future, with the panel of experts compromising of Aisha Khan, Executive Director of the Civil Society Coalition for the Climate Change and the CEO of Mountain and Glacier Protection Organization, Dr. Abid Qayyum Suleri, Executive Director of Sustainable Development Policy Institute, a leading think tank of the country, Rina Saeed Khan, an award-winning journalist and chair of the Islamabad Wildlife Management Board, and Ali Tauqeer Sheikh, Pakistan’s foremost expert on climate change and sustainable development. The ensuing discussion highlighted how critical climate change threats were for Pakistan. The climate change vulnerabilities experienced by communities across Pakistan are undeniable with smog chocking our major cities, intense and prolonged heatwaves impacting human health, and bio-diversity rapidly decreasing. Dr. Suleri elaborating on Pakistan’s plans for COP29 and shared the importance of climate finance to implement its climate change mitigation and adaptation plans. He emphasized Pakistan’s responsibility to share tangible and practical plans on world forums, while seeking support from international partners to ease its climate challenges. He advocated for a community focused approach and for Pakistan to also highlight the resilience of its people in tackling the fallout of climate change at COP29. Aisha Khan emphasized that Pakistan must use COP29 as an opportunity to network with other countries, learn from global best practices, use the platform for knowledge exchange and develop partnerships within the region as climate change is a trans-boundary issue. She highlighted how the health of the Himalaya, Karakoram and Hindukush region, home to the region’s water sources, is shared by all countries of the South Asian region and thus collective action is needed to safeguard this ecological system. Ali Tauqeer Sheikh highlighted that Pakistan is the least prepared country in the wake of the climate change. Talking about Loss and Damage Fund, he highlighted that unless there is domestic climate justice, there will be no case for climate justice at the global platforms. Climate vulnerability is a local level issue and resource allocation must be equitable and better managed. He advocated a national climate change mitigation and adaptation plan, before seeking more funds from international sources and demonstrating the country’s ability to properly manage such funding. Rina Saeed Khan highlighted how uncontrolled real estate development is affecting biodiversity. She said that in Pakistan there are about 30 national parks and although law provides for a national park to have highest protection status, a lot of these parks don’t have proper management plans.
The poster for the session on Shaping Pakistan's Climate Future
A very stimulating session at the festival titled Search for Stability was again moderated by Salma Malik with Dr. Maleeha Lodhi, Zahid Hussain and Ahmed Bilal Mehboob as the panelist. The discussion explored themes related to Pakistan’s search for stability, human security and the questions surrounding traditional and non-traditional security. Zahid Hussain, a seasoned journalist, writer and analyst, underlined that Pakistan’s instability has been a result of its internal fissures much more than any external factors. He cited weak democracy and imbalance in civil-military relations as the main cause of this instability. Externally, the security challenges stem from the fact that Pakistan shares its borders with three neighboring countries with whom its relations are far from ideal. Pakistan has been a front-line state for 40 years and it has had direct bearing on the country’s security. He also underscored the fact that Pakistan has one of the lowest Human Development Index in the world and that also contributes to its internal instability and can be largely attributed to unbridled population growth. Ahmed Bilal Mehboob, Founder President of Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (PILDAT), discussed how democracy and parliamentary supremacy has been condemned to be just a label. Dr. Maleeha Lodhi, a diplomat, political scientist, and twice ambassador to the United States, reflected on Pakistan’s poly-crises as the cause of the country’s predicaments. These crises range from economic, political, institutional, educational, uncontrolled population, climate change and many more including security, according to Dr. Lodhi. She stressed that these crises must not be examined in isolation and underscored poor governance, rule without law, political letdowns, and postponed reforms as the reasons for Pakistan’s internal instability with the situation further compounded by a volatile neighborhood. She also discussed the elite capture in Pakistan and how state is controlled by this reform-averse elite. She said that Pakistan’s politics is out of sync with the socio-economic realities sweeping through the country, making the system completely dysfunctional. She stressed that this is the inflection point for Pakistan and the choices we have are to either remain in the rut of the same cycle of bad governance, poor economic policies, indebtedness with continued borrowing and the people not being involved in the decisions that affect their lives, or to chart a different path for ourselves, which is in sync with the aspirations of the growing middle class. Currently, Pakistan’s foreign policy is in shambles with the country perhaps at the lowest ebb of relationships with both current global powers in addition to strained relations with all its bordering countries.
Zahid Hussain is speaking at the session.
With 10th Islamabad Literature Festival 2024, the season of literature festivals has officially begun and all those who cherish these precious opportunities for intellectual discourse can only hope for many more to follow.
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