HYDERABAD, March 6: Bhit Shah served as a university of Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai’s ragas where singers had preserved the Sufi poet-musician’s ragas in their original form for about 300 years, said caretaker Sindh Minister for Auqaf Haji Irshad Ahmed Memon during a visit to the shrine on Wednesday.

The minister listened to Shah’s raga sung by the singers, commonly called Shah’s Faqirs, and announced a cash award of Rs5,000 each for the seven faqirs on behalf of the Auqaf department.

The faqirs were introduced to the minister by Syed Aneesul Hassan Shah alias Jumman Shah. Faqir Mohammad Hassan Jatt and Faqir Mir Hassan Jatt, who have received training from a music centre in Sadiq Jatt village of Badin district, which specialises in imparting training in Shah Jo Raga, also performed on the occasion.

Protest planned: The senior vice-president of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Pakistan Sahibzada Abul Khair Mohammad Zubair said on Thursday that his party would observe countrywide protest on Friday against the release of a derogatory film in Holland and republication of blasphemous cartoons by Danish print media.

In a statement faxed to Dawn, he said that rallies would be held at all the provincial and district headquarters, towns and villages to condemn the film, which had portrayed Islam in a derogatory and disrespectful way, and blasphemous cartoons.