Environmentalists get rare musical treat at PNCA

Islamabad:It was a hectic event to celebrate the World Environment Day and bestow honours in the form of certificates and shields to the winning students from different educational institutions held at the Pakistan National Council of the Arts (PNCA) Tuesday evening.

In the end the participants and guests were entertained to a rare instrumental musical performance to much joy and delight of a sizable audience which almost half filled the spacious PNCA Auditorium.

Famous, internationally acclaimed ‘sitarist’, Ustad Aamir Hussain Khan, his son, Sameer Ali played tunes of popular Punjabi and Urdu songs while Ali Raza played Punjabi, Urdu and Pashto tunes of popular songs on Santoor. They were accompanied by Amanat Ali on Tabla.

Sameer Ali set the ball rolling when he strung the chords of Sitar to play popular Ghazal, ‘Husna-e-Janan ki Tareef Kaisay Karoon’, originally sung by legendary Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan,

Sameer Ali presented another couple of performances, which were warmly appreciated and as he stood up to leave the stage, the crowd enthusiastically demanded for ‘One More’! He was about to trace back his steps when the organisers politely told him to refrain, citing paucity of time as the reason. However, the crowd was not so happy and a section even booed them.

Next to take to the stage was Ali Raza on Santoor. The young man indeed had prepared well for the occasion and played two popular Punjabi and one Pashto song tunes, which earned him a good round of applause from the audience.

Last to come was Ustad Aamir Hussain Khan, the famous sitar player, who had represented Pakistan at international forums in 24 countries. He also played three compositions of popular songs, ‘Kehnday nay Naina’, ‘Mayray Yar di Gharoli Bhar Day’ and popular song sung by Ibrar Ul Haq, ‘Teray Rang, Rang’.

The performance mixed with bits of classical touches here and there, earned him a good round of applause from the audience. Evidently the young generation do have an ear for good music and enjoyed the opportunity of listening to live music, which are becoming fewer and far between of late. Ustad Amanat Ali, who accompanied all the three artistes on Tabla, was nimble with his finger tips and palm to go beautifully with all the three instrumentalists. His skills were appreciable by all means.

The organizer of the event, Mr Munir, said that while everybody is talking about the negative sides and impacts of the deteriorating environment, we made all these efforts to highlight the good and improving work and efforts being contributed by organisations, groups and even individuals to protect and improve environment in the country.

“I believe by highlighting such things will encourage others to join in our struggle and efforts to protect and improve environment,” Mr Munir said.

The former Prime Minister, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi was the Chief guest while Ambassador of Belgium, Charles Delogne, High Commissioner of Malaysia, Muhammad Azher bin Nazlan, Deputy Chief of Mission of the Netherlands Embassy Hajo Provo Kluit and Scientific Advisor EvK2CNR, Ashiq Ahimed Khan were the guests of honour in the function.