ThinkFest 2023 promises to share ideas on topical issues
Pakistan
The event will also hold sessions on the media, polarisation and politics.
By Shafaq Iqbal Farooqi
LAHORE - A two-day literary festival ‘Afkar-e-Taza ThinkFest’ is set to begin at the Alhamra Arts Council, Lahore on Saturday.
The event will begin with a session ‘Challenging Truths’ with Mohsin Hamid and it will be moderated by Dr Waseem Anwar.
The focus of the two-day festival of ideas will be on the climate crisis. Apart from that, 17 book launches on various topics, including Pakistan, South Asian region and the rest of the world will afford people an opportunity to enjoy new ideas and reflect.
The first day of the festival will have sessions on enhancing finance opportunities for Pakistan, climate crisis, indigenous knowledge system, poetics, Lahore under threat, new development projects and old dilapidated neighbourhoods. The second day (Sunday) will include a session on clean energy and the question of technology. There will also be sessions on politics, including elections and young voters in Pakistan, populism and future of democracy, local government and the country’s crises, role of politicians in problems of Pakistan, and 50 years of Pakistan’s Constitution.
Besides, there will be sessions on the media, polarisation, politics and whether there is room for a new narrative in Urdu entertainment.
Prof Dr Yaqoob Bangash, the moving spirit behind the festival, says the theme is climate change. Panellists from universities of Pakistan and all over the world have been invited to shed light on the subject exploring new technologies being used to deal with the calamities. Aristotle Tympas from Greece will discuss how technology is being used in tackling the matter.
Abdul Samad Khan Achakzai’s autobiography, My Life and Times, will be launched by his son, Ayaz Achakzai. Moreover, Ishtiaq Ahmed, a political scientist and historian from Sweden, is also scheduled to have a conversation with lawyers Salman Akram Raja and Asad Rahim Khan on Jinnah, his successes and failures and the role in history.
