SWABI: The artists from various universities enthralled the audience during the three-day All Pakistan Performing Arts Festival, which concluded at Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology here on Monday.

The festival was organised by the Cultural, Dramatics and Entertainment Society (CDES) and artists of different institutions from all over the country showed their skills, which were appreciated by academia and students.

The organisers said that the festival was one of the great events of GIK Institute that provided a platform to the young and talented artists of the country to perform and show their skills.

The GIK auditorium remained full till late night for three days. During the festival, it was difficult to get a chair in the entire hall as the stairs remained full of the audience.

Famous actor Salman Pirzada was chief guest at the concluding ceremony while noted artist Zoha Zuberi and others were also present. Those people, who failed to reach the auditorium timely, had to wait in long queues and a number of them failed to enter the hall.

“The best strategy was to make an early entry because later it was very difficult to get a chair or space even on the stairs and in corridor,” said Jalal Ahmad, a student of third year BS engineering.

The Iqra University drama ‘Marionette’ was one of the outstanding plays. It was a silent play with light music. The hero fought all the odds and his role revolved around continuous struggle with complete determination and concentration. He finally succeeded to bring the desired change in the society in the best interests of humanity.

“Qurbani” was performed by students of Bahuddin Zakariyah University. It was a story of a soldier, who scarified his wishes for his young daughter, upholding the spirit of patriotism.

However, the performance of the artists of National College of Arts, Lahore was remarkable and the audience accorded them standing ovation on several occasions.

Published in Dawn, April 23rd, 2019