CHITRAL: The Tourism Corporation Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (TCKP) and the provincial culture department have been accused of sending Pashto singers and dancers to Chitral to perform in the Chilim Jusht and Shandur festivals while neglecting the local artists.

Former project manager of IUCN in Chitral, Dr Inayatullah Faizi said that the Chitral culture had no parallel in the province as it had flavours of Central Asian and Indian cultures having many unique features.

He said Chitral music and culture was unique by the varied number of musical instruments, rich folk songs and typical varieties of dancing, but the provincial culture department had totally neglected these aspects.

Mr Faizi said that one of the main characteristics of Chitral culture was its being static in nature unaffected by other cultures coming into contact with it.

He said that it was not fair not to allow local artists to perform in Kalash and Shandur festivals.

The chairman of Ayun and (Kalash) Valleys Development Programme, Mohammad Din said that the Chilim Jusht festival of Kalash people was part of their religious dogma, and singing and dancing made an integral part of it, but allowing the non-local artists to perform on the occasion was a transgression on the rights of the Chitrali artists.

He said that the Kalash people highly abhorred the provincial government move, but didn’t react due to their peaceful and tranquil nature.

He regretted that local artists were not allowed to perform in the musical concert at the Shandur polo festival which disappointed a large number of Chitralis present on the occasion.

MPA from Chitral, Syed Sardar Hussain Shah, said that the local artists had always been neglected by the government and that the performance of non-locals in Shandur festival was an infringement on their rights.

“If the Pashto singers and dancers are brought to Kalash valley and Shandur, then why the Chitrali artists are not given a chance to perform in the festivals organised by the provincial government outside the district,” he said.

The lawmaker called it a ‘cultural apartheid’ committed to the Chitrali culture by the provincial government.

Published in Dawn, July 19th , 2014