Faiz Amn Mela in Photos

The Faiz Amn Com­mit­tee orga­nized a two-day Faiz Mela to mark the 104th birth anniver­sary of Faiz Ahmed Faiz on 13 Feb­ru­ary (Fri­day). Despite World Cup crick­et match between Pak­istan and India, the open air the­atre at Bagh-i-Jin­nah was full of peo­ple of all ages and back­grounds to attend the Mela.

A beau­ti­ful poet­ic dra­ma “Heer” was pre­sent­ed by a the­atre group. Poet­ry ses­sion, a reg­u­lar fea­ture of Mela was very emo­tion­al as poets paid trib­ute to chil­dren of Army Pub­lic School, Peshawar. Chal­leng­ing reli­gious extrem­ism is not a new phe­nom­e­non in Pak­istani poet­ry but Faiz Mela has brought promi­nent pro­gres­sive poets togeth­er to revive the promise of fight­ing against fun­da­men­tal­ism.

In a sem­i­nar titled Faiz, Class Strug­gle and Reli­gious Extrem­ism con­duct­ed by Awa­mi Work­ers Par­ty (AWP), Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary AWP Farooq Tariq said that real change could only be brought by work­ing class move­ment. On the occa­sion Taimur Rehman of Laal Band, Jawad Ahmed per­formed while Inay­at Abid recit­ed Faiz’s poet­ry and moti­vat­ed audi­ences. A large num­ber of youth’ par­tic­i­pa­tion was a promi­nent fea­ture of this Faiz Mela.
The fes­ti­val is reg­u­lar­ly organ­ised each year since the death of Faiz Ahmed Faiz in 1984.

Pho­tos by: Khalid Malik