PESHAWAR: Noted Pashto folk singer Meena Gul has advised the provincial government to create opportunities for artists and musicians in the realm of tourism.

She said that tourism offered many avenues to folk artists to exploit their talent. She performed at a live performance in Dunga Gali to entertain some foreign tourists, who did not understand Pashto language but still appreciated her singing style and courage being a female ghazal maestro.

“It was my first ever performance in Galyiat. I strongly believe folk artists could earn and learn a lot from this experience,” she told this scribe.

Meena Gul, a noted Pashto folk singer, said that pandemic played havoc with almost every country and individual around the globe but folk artists were further pushed to the wall because neither they had other source of income nor government tried to put its rhetoric into action when it came to help out the artists.

“I see a bright future for KP artists in the tourism industry because local as well as foreign tourists turn to our northern areas to beat the beat and to enjoy the indigenous music in addition to traditional foods and beverages. There should be music huts so that visitors could know about our folk music,” said the singer.

Ms Gul said that she launched her music career in the beginning to quench her thirst for singing and then she decided to make it her profession and joined Pashto music about seven years ago only when she was convinced that Pashto had a great market but unfortunately militancy coupled with pandemic made lives of KP artists a real challenge.

She said that her mother belonged to Kohistan and her father hailed from Peshawar but she was born and bred in Rawalpindi and learnt the basics of music from noted tabla player and composer Maas Khan Ustad.

She shot to great fame when she sang Ghani Khan and Khatir Afridi poems and recently sang some popular folk numbers. She said that she had earlier performed at Tariq Aziz show decades ago where she had sung in Punjabi, Urdu and even Saraiki.

The singer said that government should build music huts in Swat, Kalam and Galiyat where local artists and musicians would perform. It would help not only artists to flourish but would also send out a good message to the outside world, she added.

Published in Dawn, June 15th, 2021