Cultural activities encouraging, but more needs to be done

PESHAWAR: Holding of cultural activities like the Qissa Khwani Bazaar Festival in the federal capital, Islamabad to showcase traditional handicrafts and cultural heritage of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and its people is a positive initiative to revive and promote the rich culture of the region.
The setting up of stalls of traditional handicrafts, screening of the old classic Pashto film Yousuf Khan Sherbano, food court and a rabab competition were the salient features of the festival held at the Lok Virsa. It encouraged the young artistes and was a step forward to promote art and culture.
However, the Directorate of Culture will have to concentrate more on promoting real culture, especially by discouraging and bringing an end to vulgarity and obscenity in Pashto stage shows and tele-films.
The directorate has also failed in proper utilisation of the Nishtar Hall, the lone such place for cultural activities in Peshawar, to promote culture and explore the young talent in the province. There is need to promote Pashto as well as other regional and local cultures.
No doubt music lovers appreciated the competition of Rabab, a symbol of Pakhtun culture, though the instrument is also used by Tajik, Turkish, Kashmiri, Baloch and Iranian Kurdish classical musicians. The Rabab players and other artistes in the province have been complaining of being ignored by the concerned quarters.
Encouraging and helping artistes would not only lead to reviving cultural activities but also provide entertainment opportunities to the people of the province who have been passing through tension and anxiety due to militancy for the last more than a decade.
It is high time the directorate arranged music and drama shows at the Nishtar Hall at least on a weekly basis, besides trainings young and budding artistes to promote healthy and real culture of the province.
The senior artistes and singers also deserve to be extended financial assistance, especially those suffering from illnesses as they are no longer in a position to perform and support their families.
Some artistes complained they have submitted applications for financial help but still awaiting for release of the assistance. Those who applied for the help included noted Pashto ghazal singer Khial Mohammad and folk singers Zar Sanga, Almas Khalil, Aqal Meena and Naeem Jan.
Though Khial Muhammad and Zar Sanga were provided financial assistance by the previous Awami National Party-led government and famous Pashto folk singer Mashooq Sultan was recently provided a cheque for Rs500,000 by Governor Sardar Mahtab Ahmad Khan, many senior and ailing singers and artistes failed to approach the concerned, and thus they remained deprived of the government help.
The best way to acknowledge the contribution of artistes, the Directorate of Culture should constitute a committee comprising of senior people in different fields related to art and culture to identify the deserving artistes and extend them timely help instead of holding functions in their memories after their death.
It is also the responsibility of the directorate to encourage and take into confidence genuine organisations of artistes and people related to culture after proper scrutiny and audit such bodies so that they could provide better services to promote art and culture in the province instead of obliging some people.