Grand cultural show marks Quaid’s birthday celebrations

Islamabad

The National Institute of Folk and Traditional Heritage (Lok Virsa) organised a grand cultural show featuring child folk artistes and performers here at Heritage Museum, Shakarparian. The show was a part of the ongoing week long Quaid-i-Azam birthday celebrations announced by the Ministry of Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage, Government of Pakistan, says a press release.

Irfan Siddiqui, Adviser to the Prime Minister for National History and Literary Heritage, was the chief guest on the occasion. In his address, Mr. Siddiqui paid rich tributes to the father of the nation Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah and shed light on his teachings for the younger generation. He also appreciated the efforts of Lok Virsa in bringing unity among all federating units by presenting their indigenous folk culture at the national level.

The adviser to PM added, "Children have a great potential to express their creativity. By watching their energetic performances, one cannot imagine that these are children. We should continue such efforts to inculcate knowledge about our culture and music in the younger generation, who is the future of Pakistan."

Hundreds of children/ students of various schools and colleges from twin cities of Islamabad/Rawalpindi along with their families attended the show.

Milli naghma 'Aye Quaid-i-Azam tera ehsan...' and famous Kalam-e-Iqbal 'khudi ka serre nihan...' and Sindhi folk 'more thor tella rana...' were presented by students of Islamabad Model College for Girls, G-6/1-4 and Islamabad Model School for Girls, G-6/1-3. Popular Pashto folk song 'bibi sherini..' was presented by a special student of Directorate General of Special Education Ataul Qadeer. Students of Islamabad Model School for Girls, F-11/1 presented a diversity show 'Rhythm of Unity' depicting different folk tunes and folk songs expressing thereby a message of peace, love and unity among all provinces, GB and AJK. Balochi folk song 'laila oh laila..' sung by a young artist Javed Nauman. Child folk artistes Ashir Niazi, Subhan Niazi and Muzammal presented famous folk song 'lai bey kadran nal yari teh tut gai tarak ker ke'.

The performances of the child stars were greatly commended by the audience.

Talking to this scribe, Lok Virsa Executive Director Dr. Fouzia Saeed said, "It is an effort on the part of Lok Virsa to sow the seeds of pluralistic society in the youth of Pakistan. We believe that it will serve to provide an orientation to children about our rich musical heritage." It will also contribute towards creating ownership among children regarding Pakistan's cultural heritage besides reaffirming our identity of being multi-cultural and pluralistic country, she added.

Lok Virsa also arranged an exhibition of artisans-at-work at Heritage Museum coinciding with the Quaid-i-Azam day celebrations. Master artisans in the field of Ajrak block printing, truck art, basketry, weaving, mirror work and stone carving demonstrated their skills at the exhibition.