LAHORE: The Government College University (GCU) syndicate has announced the institution of Madeeha Gauhar Award for the female artist of the year in memory of the late theatre professional and founder of Ajoka Theatre.

The annual award will be given to the best female actress from the university’s Dramatics Club, Ajoka Executive Director Shahid Mehmood Nadeem told Dawn on Wednesday. He said the decision was taken at the syndicate meeting in order to pay tribute to Madeeha Gauhar’s invaluable contribution to the promotion of theatre in Pakistan.

Madeeha was an old Ravian and former president of the Government College Dramatics Club.

Mr Nadeem thanked GCU Vice Chancellor Prof Hassan Amir Shah for proposing to institute the award and hoped that it would inspire young actors to explore their talent and follow in the footsteps of Madeeha.

He said the decision was informally taken last year in October in connection with a memorial reference for Madeeha, but could only be finalised by the syndicate meeting in August. He said his wife had to her credit the promotion of socially meaningful theatre in Pakistan; she taught theatre to generations and introduced a number of actors who had now become prominent faces on television.

To a question about Ajoka’s future plans, Nadeem said that the Asma Jahangir Conference to be held in Lahore in October would conclude with a play by Ajoka. “I am writing a new play for the conference. It would be based on prominent cases she fought, her struggles as a human rights activist and the efforts she made against the menace of honour killing,” he added.

He said that Ajoka was also considering staging a play on novelist, essayist and poet Amrita Pritam. She is considered the first prominent woman Punjabi poet and is most remembered for her poem, ‘Ajj Aakhaan Waris Shah Nu’. He also plans to write a play on Baba Guru Nanak, he added.

Published in Dawn, August 29th, 2019