PESHAWAR: Noted Pashto singers and artists received great applause from the audience at a function in Nishtar Hall here on Saturday.

The function titled ‘grand folk gala’ was organised the fundraising office working under the planning and devolvement department of University of Peshawar to promote local art and culture and also raise funds for needy students.

A large number of students, teachers, families and social activists attended the gala. Noted artists including Zarsanga, Khanzada Asfandyar Khattak and Shahid Malang performed and received great applause from the jam-packed hall. The students of UoP also displayed their talent.

UoP organises function to promote local art and raise funds for needy students

Gulalai, director of the fundraising office, said that the function was in fact an initiative of her office in collaboration with Student Societies of UoP to promote peace and pluralism through folk performances by established artists besides introducing new artists and raising funds for the deserving students.

Khanzada Asfandyar Khattak stole the show by presenting classical and fusion dance.

Zarsanga said that she performed after a long time and was pleased to see that young artists took keen interest in promoting the cause of peace and pluralism and also had passion to raise funds for those students, who could not afford high fees of education.

She said that folk music had great strength and a magical spell and should be used for a good cause. She sang several popular Pashto folk songs.

Dr Rubina Hasan told this scribe that she and her family members enjoyed the event. She asked the officials of other universities in the province to launch such initiatives so that needy and talented students could get a chance to have access to quality education.

Khanzada Asfandyar Khattak said that the folk gala would help young performers to use their talent for promoting peace in the society and send out a strong message to the world that people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa loved art and believed in universal values of humanism and harmony.

University students including Fayaz and his colleagues from Chitral sang songs in Khowar; Zakariya Labeeb, Rashid Khan, Arif, Kamil Afridi, Hasan Shah and Shaukat Swati sang Pashto and Urdu tracks. Shahid Malang played wonderful rabab tunes and mesmerised the audience. A group of young participants also danced to the tunes of rabab.

Monazaa and Afsar Afghan moderated the folk gala in a befitting manner by sprinkling beautiful Pashto and Urdu couplets through rounds of three-hour long event.

Published in Dawn, October 13th, 2019