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#KLF Fake Liberal Festival: A Gathering of Life Style Liberals in Karachi – by Anila Shamsie

posted by Guest Post | February 15, 2013 | In Original Articles

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Related posts: Comparing Karachi Literature Festival 2012 with Difa-e-Pakistan Conference

Dr. Ayesha Siddiqa: Persona non grata at Karachi Literature Festival #KLF

“I’ve been in a rickshaw”: Some critical reflections on the Karachi Literature Festival 2011

Welcome to another conglomeration of pro-establishment “Liberals” at Karachi’s “elitist” literary festival. This time, the festival has shifted from one swanky hotel to another one. Voices that differ from the mainstream have been further marginalized in this festival.

One needs to go no further than to see the treatment meted out to Dr. Ayesha Siddiqa. Dr. Siddiqa has written extensively on the financial power of Pakistan’s military establishment. She has further highlighted how the military establishment in Pakistan ensures that it cultivates its civilian proxies and develops its younger “assets” amongst not only right-wing Islamists but also amongst fake liberals, together they make fake civil society (FCS).

For being critical of military establishment assets like Anatol Lieven, Dr. Siddiqa has been declared persona non grata.

Refer to http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2013/02/15/news/national/persona-non-grata/

“Interestingly, Dr Ayesha Siddiqa, an intellectual, author and op-ed writer, was assigned the status of ‘persona non grata’ by organisers of KLF for creating discomfort for the British, pro-Pakistan Army author Anatol Lieven in last year’s session.”

Dr. Siddiqa’s tweets earlier this week highlighted the same issues.

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Just as Dr. Siddiqa has been marginalized from KLF, the current Director of the Pro Taliban/Pro Military establishment, Jinnah Institute, has been given multiple spots to moderate the discussion. KLF is rapidly being reduced to a pro-establishment gathering dominated by opportunistic pseudo liberals.

While there will be some interesting events which have literary merit, these well funded elitest festivals are done to showcase and pad the credentials of pro-establishment “liberals”. This is the class of people that has engaged in an active campaign to present itself as the drop of liberalism surrounded by a sea of ignorance and extremism. It is hard to imagine a greater case of narcissism combined with sheer intellectual dishonesty.

The narrative of this group is easy and predictable. This group is comprised mostly of the Punjabi-Muhajir elite that has dominated Pakistan’s civil-military bureaucratic establishment. With a long track record of supporting dictators and demagogue fanatics such as General Zia ul Haq, General Musharaf and PCO judge Chaudhary Iftikhar, this group maintains that it is the only pristine force worth funding in Pakistan. It thrives on NGO style liberalism that does not stray too far into dangerous causes – especially those that run counter to the military establishment. The voices of resistance are either co-opted or silenced and regular attempts are made to hijack causes and misrepresent them.

There will be crude jokes and abuses reserved for PPP and perhaps even PTI. However, for those looking for a more critical picture of the military-judiciary establishment and its civilian proxies like MQM and PML N, they are best advised to look elsewhere. The KLF will stick to safe areas and the literary debate will be limited to safe targets.

While this indictment does not apply to everyone at KLF, the manner in which Dr. Siddiqa has been sidelined in spite of the wishes of one of the organizer’s speaks volumes as does the vague statement of Amina Sayeed.

For the last two years, LUBP has highlighted the hypocrisy and dishonesty of this pseudo liberal elite mafia that aligns itself with the powerful military-judicial establishment and its Jihadi proxies like ASWJ-LeJ. LUBP has repeatedly confronted the falsehood and propaganda published by these Fake Civil Society mafias. For this effort, LUBP writers, editors and supporters are repeatedly harassed, blackmailed and threatened – culminating in the shameful act that lead to the resignation of LUBP’s founding editor.

If the world wants to see the parade of pro establishment hacks, go down to the Beach Luxury Hotel of Karachi. At this literary festival, just don’t expect to hear much critical debate or significantly differing viewpoints. This literary festival is mostly reduced to fake liberals promoting themselves and their compadres – just like they do on twitter.

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  1. H Baloch

    Dr. Ayesha Siddiqa was not invited but Uncle Raza Roomi (employee of Sherry Rehman’s Jinnah Institute and Najam Sethi’s The Friday Times) is all over the place.

    May God protect Bilawal and Bakhtawar from Uncle Raza Rumi, President of PPP-Shahbaz-Sharif-Group. Before him there used to be his employer Uncle Najam Sethi who was a similar well-wisher of Benazir Bhutto.

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  2. Rumi fan

    Biggest hero in klf is raza roomanvi rumi. first he backstabbed ejaz literary haider and comes to gunnah institute than his liberal woman columnist friend

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  3. Yasin

    ہم میں سے کچھ بظاہر نظریاتی لوگ اپنی زبان سے تو وہ باتیں کہتے ہیں جو ہمارے نظریات سے ہم آہنگ نظر آتی ہوں لیکن یہ باتیں ہمارے دل سے نہیں نکلتیں ،صرف زبان سے ادا ہوتی ہیں۔ حبیب جالب نے اسی قلم کے بہروپیوں کے لئے کہا تھا

    دنیا کا جن کو درد ہے معدودے چند ہیں
    باقی تمام اپنی ترقی پسند ہیں

    نظریاتی لوگ جب پسے ہوئے طبقوں کا ذکرکرتے ہیں تو ان کا ایک ایک لفظ ان کی دلی دردمندی کی گواہی دیتا ہے۔ یہی وجہ ہے کہ ان کے دل سے نکلی ہوئی بات براہ راست دل پر ہی اثر کرتی ہے۔

    اعجاز حیدر، رضا رومی، ماروی سرمد، حنیف رامے اور مصطفیٰ کھر جیسے بہروپیوں کا نہ ترقی پسندی سے کوئی تعلق ہے نہ ہی پیپلز پارٹی سے – یہ لوگ فوجی اسٹبلشمنٹ کے پروردہ اور اپنی کلاس کے مفادات کے غلام ہیں

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  4. KLF2013

    Promoters (urban elites and their wannabe flatterers)

    Raza Rumi ‏@Razarumi
    “@KarachiLitFest: #KLF is free,but you can pay a fee & become a delegate to enjoy special facilities. Details: http://www.karachiliteraturefestival.org/delegates #karachi

    mohammedhanif ‏@mohammedhanif
    I’ll be moderating Hasan Dars book launch tomorrow at 230 pm. KLF. Beach Luxury. Please come

    Ali Shahid ‏@Sensibely
    This irritating uncle in sand color shirt has insisted discussion in Urdu at “state of education” session #KLF

    karachikhatmal ‏@karachikhatmal
    Fucking excited that I’m going to be around for this year’s #KLF. Kaafi killer program hai.

    Raza Rumi ‏@Razarumi
    Just saw @tapujaveri who was being chased by countless fans 🙂

    Ayesha Tammy Haq ‏@tammyhaq
    Heard the rain took deconstruct to distruct level “@Razarumi: Missing @BhopalHouse just when I wanted to deconstruct so much 🙂 #KLF”

    Faiza S Khan ‏@BhopalHouse
    Not enough people tweeting from #KLF. This is most frustrating.

    Mehmal Sarfraz ‏@Mehmal
    I A Rehman, Farzana Majeed, @mmatalpur and @mohammedhanif at #KLF pic.twitter.com/bNXqHURw

    Adnan Siddiqi ‏@adnansiddiqi
    ‘Ordinary citizens don’t realize how powerful they are, we are in a position to make governments give us our rights.’ @TehminaDurrani #KLF

    Nasim Zehra ‏@NasimZehra
    #KLF is absolutely the place to be for those who care to think,feel & to change through the written and spoken word…sadly I couldn’t.

    Anwar A Durrani ‏@aliarqam
    #klf Agar 400 bachey #Lahore se aghwa kar liye jain tau aisa karney waley bach na saktey, they do it in #Balochistan says @mohammedhanif

    Anwar A Durrani ‏@aliarqam
    We in #Quetta hv 500K #Hazaras living and restrained to Ghettoes, First they have been killed 4 coming out n now killed there #KLF @AliDayan

    Critics

    Rasha Taus ‏@RashaTaus
    @mufaruk I think so too.`Karachi Post’ indicated the festival was utterly `taken over by establishment Libs?Something similar on LUBP also.

    Free Speech Pakistan ‏@freespeechpak
    We welcome pro-establishment #FakeLiberals to #KarachiFakeLiberalFestival #KFLF #KLF #Karachi

    Mehreen Rana ‏@mehreenrana
    Not even slightly impressed by the set-ups at #KLF. Looks like amateurs have provided basic tents, a mic and speakers.

    sophia ahmed ‏@sophiaahmed
    Interesting if a #KLF panel discussed appropriate language, mannerism attributed to persons with #disability in #literature such a failing

    Ali Taj ‏@AliAbbasTaj
    @NasimZehra @MehrTarar here is a slightly different take on #KLF http://criticalppp.com/archives/243211

    Ada Khakwani ‏@AdaKhakwani
    @NasimZehra @AliAbbasTaj @MehrTarar @mohammedhanif Has @najamsethi apologized to Pak for conspiring against BB? @AliDayan @iamthedrifter

    Ada Khakwani ‏@AdaKhakwani
    Mohammed Hanif writes one article per year in support of the Baloch, usually a day before Karachi Literary Festival. #KLF

    Nishapuri FC ‏@NishapuriFC
    Urban elite pro-establishment #FakeLiberals and their wannabe flatterers of the middle class. #KLF #KFLF #KarachiFakeLiberalsFestival

    Nishapuri FC ‏@NishapuriFC
    “Literature in Pakistan is the most agreeable way of ignoring real society.” #KarachiFakeLiberalFestival #KFLF #KLF

    Free Speech Pakistan ‏@freespeechpak
    Dominance of pro-establishment #FakeLiberals in #KarachiFakeLiberalFestival #KFLF proves that literature exists in a vacuum. #KLF #Karachi

    Nishapuri FC ‏@NishapuriFC
    @freespeechpak The more a person is dominant in #KLF i.e #KFLF #KarachiFakeLiberalFesitval, the more chances that he is agency-certified.

    Saroor Ijaz ‏@SaroorIjaz
    Even though we have become accustomed to the pretentious outbursts of fake liberals (libidos), we must not be influenced by them.

    Saroor Ijaz ‏@SaroorIjaz
    The only good fiction Pakistani novelists have produced is about their critical acclaim. More of such talk to follow at Khi Litter Festival.

    Saroor Ijaz ‏@SaroorIjaz
    Wilfred Owen, a soldier and perhaps the greatest war poet, comes to mind and quickly fades away.

    Saroor Ijaz ‏@SaroorIjaz
    The vain pantomimes of shame and self-disgust exhibited by fake liberals (libidos) make for a theatre of absurd and nausea.

    Nishapuri FC ‏@NishapuriFC
    Those who routinely ignore or misrepresent #ShiaGenocide #Baloch #Ahmadis killed by #TakfiriDeobandi militants produce literature? #KLF

    Looking at the proceedings of #KLF it appears that 21,000 Shia Muslims have been killed at a different planet. #ShiaGencoide #Apathy

    There were some thugs posing as literary figures in Nazi Germany who ignored or obfuscated Holocaust. Thugs at #KLF obfuscate #ShiaGenocide

    Godfather IV ‏@godfatheriv
    RT @iamthedrifter @Razarumi @omar_quraishi @mazdaki I am blissfully informed abt sme KLF decisions & how mafias control lit fests

    Nishapuri FC ‏@NishapuriFC
    Other than a token remark in one odd session, is there a single session focused on 21000 Shias killed in #Pakistan? #KLF #ShiaGenocide

    Nishapuri FC ‏@NishapuriFC
    He in the name of human rights hides the fact that hundreds of non-Hazara Shias have been killed in Quetta alone. #ShiaGenocide He focuses on the identity of killed #Hazaras but hides the identity of killers #Deobandis. See the Irony? #KLF #ShiaGenocide

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