‘How else could you experience so much of the world in one weekend?’ In defiance of security concerns, the Lahore literary festival retained a mood of determined cheerfulness
Would it go ahead or not, and if so where? There can’t be many public events that have been forced to confront such fundamental questions less than 24 hours before curtain-up, but the organisers of the fourth Lahore literary festival faced down the authorities’ concerns about security with a quick change of venue and a one-day programme reduction, prompting Pakistani journalist and novelist Mohammed Hanif to remark wrily, “The government says we can’t give security on Friday but we can do it on Saturday and Sunday. Why is it a security threat on Friday and not on Saturday?”
Hanif, whose 2008 debut novel A Case of Exploding Mangoes was a satire centred on the death of Pakistani president General Zia in a mysterious plane crash, was speaking at a session on George Orwell, whose presence loomed large over the festival as rumours swirled as to whether the clampdown was due to genuine concerns about a terrorist attack or to a standoff between the regional government and protesters against the damage being inflicted on this historic city by the construction of a new metro line.
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