PESHAWAR: Visitors from different parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa showed up at the opening ceremony of 36th chrysanthemum festival held here at Islamia College University.

Over 150 varieties of chrysanthemum (Gul-i-Dwaoodi) were displayed at the show. Teachers, students, old Islamians, families and nature lovers took great interest in the charming sight.

The chrysanthemum exhibition will remain open till 25th of this month for public view. Around 41 new varieties were added to the show compared to last year 30.

Caretaker Minister for Education Prof Qasim Jan, who inaugurated the event, said that students should play their role for clean and green environment alongside focusing on quality education. He added that he credited faculty members and students for keeping up the old tradition of celebrating chrysanthemum every year.

VC announces Rs50,000 prize for chief gardener and his team

He said that such events helped to boost up aesthetic sense of students and paved way for others to participate in healthy activities on the campus. He said that clean and green campus signified the aesthetic and moral standards of future generations.

ICU Vice-chancellor Prof Gul Majeed Khan announced a cash prize Rs50,000 for chief gardener Javed Khan and his team, saying that they would be encouraged to introduce innovative methods of arrangement of floral stalls.

Ali Hoti, sports director of ICU, stated that the chrysanthemum festival had already become a trade mark annual event, which attracted visitors from across the province. He said that every year new varieties of Gul-i-Dawoodi were added to the exhibition.

Javed Khan Chacha, the chief gardener, said on the occasion that about 10 new varieties of chrysanthemum were added to the show. It lent extra aurora to the display of beautiful Gul-i-Dawoodi, he added.

Green Youth Movement (GYM), a body comprising students of ICU, also displayed a special stall to motivate a cleanliness drive on the campus.

Prof Nasreen Ghafar, the chief of GYM, said that more than 50 girl and boy students worked under her supervision to encourage growing plants and keep environment pollution-free.

Shahzad Ahmad and Mohammad Abbas, students of a local college, told this scribe that they enjoyed the flower show with great interest.

Sehba Khan Afridi, a student of English department at ICU, said that she and her friends were writing a research paper on the significance of chrysanthemum and the event provided them with valuable information on the topic.

Published in Dawn, December 13th, 2023