Among the many new academies, institutions and organisations that Z A Bhutto established within just five years, from 1972 to 1977, the Pakistan Academy of Letters (PAL) stands out as a thriving academy. Though it is nearly always short of funds, its chairpersons from Fakhar Zaman and Iftikhar Arif to Qasim Bhugio and Yusuf Khushk have contributed their efforts to produce some good work.

Now under the leadership of Dr Najiba Arif, the first female chairperson of the Academy, the PAL has once again become a dynamic body that organises frequent conferences and seminars across the country, even with the meagre resources it has at its disposal. Najiba Arif is a prolific academic with over 50 research papers to her credit, published in some of the top literary journals and magazines both nationally and abroad. She is also a poet and translator of considerable repute, with over a dozen books with her name adorning the shelves.

As the head of the Urdu department – and later as the dean of the faculty of language and literature – at the International Islamic University in Islamabad, she launched the research journal ‘Meyaar’ that set good research standards in Urdu. She was also the guest editor of ‘Bunyaad’, the research journal of the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS). Another of her contributions was as the editor of the first indexation agency of Urdu journals in Pakistan. Recently she has initiated a series of provincial conferences to discuss the literary developments in all the country's federating units.

Being in Karachi in the last week of April allowed me to attend the second day of the two-day conference ‘Adabyaat-e-Sindh: Muasir Tanazur’ (Literature of Sindh: Contemporary perspective). Held on 25-26 at the National Museum Auditorium, the conference was well-attended on the first day, but due to the strike in Karachi protesting against the genocide, the second day witnessed thin participation. The quality of discussions was high and the level of interest in the audience remained noticeable throughout all the sessions. The first session discussed post-independence literary........

© The News International