Written by: Sania Ahmed Khan
Posted on: March 02, 2020 | 
| 中文
KLF at Beach Luxury Hotel
The 11th Karachi Literature Festival (KLF) was held at Beach Luxury Hotel from 28th February to 1st March. Organized by Oxford University Press (OUP), the theme for this year’s festival was Across Continents: How the World Travels. The 3-day festival is open to all and brings together authors writing in diverse languages, traditions and genres. It features talks, discussions, mushairas, a book fair, book launches, readings, signings, comedy, film screenings, literary awards, music and dance. This year, the KLF featured more than 80 sessions and 200 speakers/participants from around 9 countries. Some of the keynote speakers were William Dalrymple, Zaheda Hina, Ahdaf Soueif, and Haris Khalique.
On Day 2, The Hub Power Company (HUBCO) assembled a panel to discuss the water crisis in Karachi, which is relevant in today’s context considering the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has ranked Pakistan third in the world, among countries facing acute water shortage. The session was titled “Drop by Drop: Karachi’s Water Crisis” and was moderated by geographer and social development specialist Simi Kamal.
The panelists included Khalid Mehmood Shaikh, who heads the Public Private Partnership Unit at Government of Sindh, BBC-Urdu Writer Wusatullah Khan, and HUBCO representatives Babar Siddiqui and Farrukh Rasheed.
Farrukh Rasheed, Babar Siddiqui, Wusatullah Khan and Khalid Shaikh at the 'Drop by Drop' Panel
Shaikh, who had a brief stint as Managing Director at Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) said that most of the public sector institutions in the country did not enjoy a good reputation. Acknowledging issues such as mismanagement, corruption and political compulsions within KWSB, he was regretful of the fact that similar observations can be made across all government institutions. He explained that Karachi got water from two sources: Keenjhar Lake, Thatta and Hub Dam, Karachi. The former has a quota of 650 MGD water but due to technical issues (pumping lines at Dhabeji) no more than 450 MGD can be obtained.
Wusatullah Khan did little to hide his dissatisfaction and went as far as to say that when authorities are unwilling to tackle urgent issues such as water shortage, they portray them as “complex”. He recounted days spent in European countries recently, where tourists were using public fountains to fill up their water bottles and even drinking water directly from the tap. He said it reminded him of his childhood (in Pakistan) when a single water pump at the end of the street provided enough water to meet the needs of every house in the street.
Khalid Mehmood took issue with this statement and said nostalgic references are better suited to articles and TV programmes, and at a venue like KLF, it was wiser to present actual facts and research. He said that the number of people drinking tap water has decreased significantly since Wusatullah’s childhood, and so has the mortality rate. “While desalination is a popular solution suggested by even people in the audience, it comes with its own economic and environmental costs. 10,000 gallons of desalinated water, which is the requirement of one household for a month, will cost about Rs. 15,000 to the end user. Not a lot of people living in Karachi are willing to pay that much,” he said.
The panel consisted of two representatives from HUBCO. Babar Siddiqui, Head of Projects – New Ventures, who has been associated with HUBCO since 2017 said that the company played a part in solving the energy crisis in Sindh, and has now shifted focus to the water shortage, particularly in Karachi. Their focus is on increasing water production by processing seawater, and treating waste water so that it is recycled and becomes less hazardous to the environment.
Babar Siddiqui noted that owing to its vast natural reservoirs, Canada has the highest amount of per capita water available in the world. Despite the abundance, people in Canada use water sparingly and are penaltized for washing cars at home. To instill social responsibility within citizens, they are billed at a volumetric basis – everyone pays for the exact amount they consumed.
In response to the moderator’s question regarding objectives of a public sector institution like KWSB, Farrukh Rasheed said that service delivery and regulation should be separate to avoid conflict of interest. KWSB should take on the role of regulator, and allow public private partnerships to deal with the problem. He further added that HUBCO could provide capital, engineering capability and sound management practices in the partnership.
In a discussion titled “Stage and Teleplay Shaping Society”, moderator Ahmed Shah asked the panel interesting questions on what makes a drama sell, and what are the responsibilities of writers, actors and directors in guiding thought and forming opinion. This comes at an interesting time when there are many expectations placed on dramas to fully represent societies in their best and worst lights. The panelists included renowned stage and TV personalities such as Kaif Ghaznavi, Khaled Anam, Bee Gul, Haseena Moin and Sanam Saeed.
Kaif Ghaznavi is a graduate of National College of Arts (NCA), who is also trained in classical musical and has made a name for herself by performing in critically-acclaimed stage plays where she often sings. Curator of Bunvat Festival, she is currently Head of Media Sciences at Iqra University. To her, the lack of good content in TV dramas is due to a lack of quality Urdu writers. She recalled her school days when Urdu Adab was purposefully taken out of the curriculum, so that students could indulge in English works of Literature. Shutting down exposure to Urdu created in a gap in students’ ability to read and write Urdu, which resulted in the production (and popularity) of digests and magazines.
Bee Gul agreed with Kaif and further added that the production team at a TV channel do not give writers much liberty to experiment with content. Content is largely dictated by the marketing team, according to the type of dramas that have done well with audiences in the past. She said that Sanam Saeed expressed the desire to highlight struggles of women, and wanted to make a telefilm on Pakistan’s Women Cricket Team. Sports is a genre that has not been touched, but Bee Gul did not seem optimistic at finding a producer to support such a film.
As a final comment on the discussion, Sanam Saeed said that the current generation was not interested in watching TV dramas because their attention span is only 17 minutes. The inherent restlessness makes us go from one thing to the next, be it social media or TV.
Sanam Saeed at KLF
One of the most exciting sessions at KLF was William Dalrymple’s presentation on his new book – The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company. The book is a graphic retelling of the EIC’s rise from provincial trading company to the pre-eminent military and political power in all of India. In his presentation, William Dalrymple breathed life into figures from history, who for many of us, are simply names in historical textbooks.
In his character-driven version of events, William draws attention to individuals which helps readers understand the importance of social personal ties that build history. For instance, the infamous Battle of Plassey (1757) that marked the way for British dominion in India was not primarily won due to the superiority of European military technology, but because the Nawab of Bengal was betrayed by his ambitious general, Mir Jafar. The instigators of the plot – the Jagat Seths, Marwari-Jain bankers and kingmakers in Bengali politics – reveal the significance of private actors in the rise of the Company.
The Anarchy Book Launch
KLF was attended by a diverse crowd of scholars and students, and allowed literary enthusiasts to interact with experts of their fields. The talks and performances cater to literature, culture and contemporary issues. If you missed KLF this year, you can still catch live streams of the panels and performances on the KLF Facebook page (courtesy of Electronic Diary).
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