LAHORE: The 2023 edition of the academic literary festival, Afkar-e-Taza ThinkFest, will kick off at Alhamra, The Mall on Saturday (tomorrow).

A conversation with Mohsin Hamid on ‘Challenging Truths’, moderated by Dr Waseem Anwar, will open the two-day event that has become a regular part of the literary calendar of Lahore along with the Lahore Literary Festival. Besides focus on the climate crisis, the schedule of this year’s festival is dotted with about 17 book launches on various topics, including Pakistan, the South Asian region and the rest of the world.

The sessions on climate on the first day include tapping finance opportunities for Pakistan, the climate crisis, indigenous knowledge system and poetics and 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.

Talking about the new aspects of ThinkFest, Prof Dr Yaqoob Bangash, who is leading an independent trust managing the festival, says the focus of the festival this year is on climate change. Panelists have been invited from universities of Pakistan as well as abroad to take on the subject exploring new technologies being used to deal with the crisis, he told Dawn, adding that foreign experts like Aristotle Tympas from Greece will discuss how technology is being used in tackling the matter.

Another important aspect this year around is inclusion of panelists from all provinces of Pakistan to make it more inclusive, Bangash says. Abdul Samad Khan Achakzai’s autobiography, My Life and Times, will be launched by his son, Ayaz Achakzai.

The launch of Struggle for Hegemony in Pakistan by Asim Sajjad Akhtar – among other book launches -- forms a part of the political category, whatever is allowed to talk about it. Other sessions on politics include 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.

Also part of the programme is a session on Pakistan’s political economy wherein former finance minister Miftah Ismail will answer Akbar S. Zaidi’s questions. Pakistan is currently going through yet another economic crisis with inflation getting worse, and one hopes the causes and solutions to the present state of economic affairs will also be discussed in the session.

History has remained a focus of the ThinkFest since its beginning. In this edition of the festival too, there are sessions and book launches on the subject. Political scientist and historian from Sweden, Ishtiaq Ahmed, is scheduled to have a conversation with lawyers Salman Akram Raja and Asad Rahim Khan on Jinnah, his successes and failures and role in history. There is a session on law and Muslim political thought in the late colonial India, strands of women’s struggle in the history of Pakistan, and from Nehru to Modi -- a new India.

The lone session on Punjabi is the launch of Nain Sukh’s book, Waba Tay Wasaaib, in which the author would be talking about the book along with Sughra Sadaf, Zubair Ahmed and Naveed Alam.

Besides these recurring subjects, the event also features sessions on the media, polarisation and politics and whether there is room for a new narrative in Urdu entertainment. Another session will be on the new media, democratisation vs disinformation, an important aspect in the current times.

Published in Dawn, January 13th, 2023