KARACHI, July 16: Firdaus Jamal and Shagufta Aijaz were declared best actor and best actress at the 13th PTV awards ceremony held here at PAF Museum on Saturday night.

Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Tariq Azeem presented the award of best actor while the Reema gave away the award of best actress.

Life-time achievement award and a cheque for Rs100,000 was presented to Mehdi Hasan.

A large number of TV and film artists, families and others attended the mega show in which performers enthralled people during presentation of awards in 20 different categories.

Awards for best supporting actor and actress went to Shabbir Shah and Nayyer Kamal, respectively.

Special tributes were paid by the contemporary artists to the classical singers Mehdi Hasan, Farida Khanum and Iqbal Bano. Tributes were also paid to Noor Jehan, Musarat Nazir, Sabiha Khanum, Neelo and Rani.

Quetta Centre's drama 'Matti' won the award of best drama production while the best non-drama production went to Farrukh Bashir for his programme 'Khirag-i-Tehseen'.

Nighat Chaudhry and Fasih Rehman also performed classical 'Raags'.

Humaira Channa was declared best folk singer while Shabnam Majeed got best singer light music award.

Award for best music video (private) was clinched by director, Shoaib Mansoor for 'Anarkali' performed by singer Shabnam Majeed while best drama production (Private) went to TV-2 production 'Sassi'.

Taj Haider received the Best Playwright Serial award whereas the award for best playwright series was grabbed by Bisharat Ahmed.

Tariq Azeem thanked the artists from Malaysia, Iran and China who performed at the programme.

Managing Director, PTV, Ashraf Azeem also spoke.

The categories and winners of other awards: Best Lyricist Ada Jafrey; best compare Tausiq Haider; best news caster (Urdu); Nasim Tariq, best news caster (English) Shabnam Nasir; Best Qari, Qari Buzurg Shah Al-Azhari and Best naat khwan Syed Zubair Masood.

Speaking on the occasion, minister of state for information and broadcasting, Tariq Azeem said we should be proud of the rich culture and great heritage that we have inherited.

“If anyone in the world wants to taste the richness of culture, he must visit Pakistan,” he said.

He said being poor is no crime, but being unproud of a plenteous culture as ours is tantamount to the same.

The minister congratulated the managing director of PTV Ashraf Azeem and his entire team for arranging a beautiful programme in connection with the 13th PTV awards ceremony in Karachi.—PPI