PESHAWAR: The ‘Ya Qurban’ competition of singing old folk songs being held on divisional level by the Culture Department of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government started from Mardan in which around 70 amateur folk singers participated on Sunday.

Zarnosh, hailing from Garhyaala, bagged the first position with his unique style of ‘tappay’ singing and received the Fazl-i-Rabbi Award along with a cash prize of Rs100,000, said a press release issued by the culture department here.

Fazl-i-Rabbi was a Pashto folk singer famous for singing ‘tappay’ from Mardan and to honour the old singers as well as explore new talent in an effort to revive Pashto folk song genre of ‘tappay’ the competitions are being held on divisional level. Such competitions would also be held in Peshawar, Kohat, Bannu, DI Khan, Malakand and Hazara divisions.

The competition was held in Mardan Sports Complex and culture minister Amjad Afridi, additional secretary culture Tariq Khan and other officials were also present on the occasion.

A young singer, Jalal Mardanvi, bagged second position and a reward of Rs75,000 whereas another singer from Swabi, Khairul Amin, got third position and a prize of Rs50,000.The winners were also given awards carved beautifully from wood.

Zarnosh, two others qualify for provincial level ‘tappay’ singing competition

The three singers would be competing with winners from other divisions in Peshawar at the provincial level for Ahmad Khan Award for best ‘tappay’ singer of the province.

They said that they were really happy to have participated in the contest. Prize for the winner of provincial award is Rs300,000.

“New talent has been given an opportunity for the first time by the government,” said Zarnosh, the winner of Mardan contest.

“This is a revolutionary step to revive old musicians, singers and song genres,” said one of the participants appreciating secretary culture Azam Khan’s initiative of holding such a unique contest.

Another such competition would be held on Nov 18 in Hazara division where new talent would compete for Ustad Rasheed Hazarvi Award and for those singing in Pashto Ustad Zahir Khan Swati award would be given. The competition would be held in Abbottabad at Jalal Baba Auditorium.

‘Tappay’ singers from Peshawar division would compete on Nov 21for Kishwar Sultana Award and those singing in Hindko would get Inayat Ali Sultani Award if they win the contest.

Such a singing contest would be held at Dera Ismail Khan on Nov 25 for Pathanay Khan Award for Seraiki singers and Zar Sanga Award for Pashto singers.

On 29th the competition would be held in Kohat division for Syed Hassan Ustad Award. On Dec 3 new talent would compete for Gulnar Begum Award in Bannu. ‘Ya Qurban’ would echo in Malakand division on Dec 6 and the winners would get Mashooq Sultana Award while Khwar singers would get Ustad Gul Nawaz Khaki Award.

The grand finale among the winners of divisional level competitions would be held at Nishtar Hall, Peshawar, on Dec 10 for the provincial Ahmad Khan Award.

Published in Dawn, November 16th, 2015