Bilawal unveils plan to promote peace

The Express Tribune

For the first time in the history of Pakistan a ‘Sindh festival’ is going to be organised from February 2014, aiming to promote, protect and preserve one of the richest cultures of the world: the Indus Civilisation.

“We are promoting the culture of peace, while terrorists want to impose their culture through the barrel of a gun,” said Pakistan Peoples Party Patron-in-Chief Bilawal Bhutto Zardari at a ceremony Sunday evening.

The Sindh festival, which will be hosted by Bilawal and his sister, Bakhtawar Bhutto Zardari, will start from Mohenjo-Daro and will end at Keenjhar Lake. It will feature events such as a horse and cattle grand prix, grand mushairas [in Sindhi and Urdu], music nights, Sindh fashion festival, Sindh international film festival, Karachi literature festival, a children’s festival and a Basant festival.

“Our heritage is under threat,” Bilawal said while unveiling the features of the Sindh festival. A ‘fictionalised and imported’ culture is being imposed on Pakistan “despite the fact that the country has its own rich cultural heritage”, he added.

“Terrorists want Pakistan to have a primitive society… It is up to us to preserve our own history and culture,” Bilawal said. “I’m proud to be a Sindhi, Muslim and Pakistani… Let’s preserve, protect and promote Sindh. Let’s preserve, protect and promote Pakistan’s heritage,” he added. Bilawal stressed that the Sindh festival would be an ‘apolitical’ festival. “Every citizen of Pakistan… [including] Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, his daughter, Imran Khan and members of all political parties… are invited to the Sindh festival,” he said.