HYDERABAD - October 28, 2005: People’s Party Parliamentarian’s legislator Sassui Palijo looks at a book written by her grandmother Zarina Baloch at a book fair set up at the press club here. — Dawn

HYDERABAD: The Sindh Minister for Culture, Ms Sassui Palijo, has said that her ministry has launched the Mehran Music School project at the Mehran Arts Council at a cost of Rs12.961 million to impart training to youths in performing arts, including vocal music, instrumental music and folk dance.

The project would be funded by the Benazir Bhutto Shaheed Youth Development Programme, she said while speaking at inauguration ceremony of Mehran Music School here on Wednesday evening.

She said the school would help revive old glory of Sindhi music. Sindh is very rich in art and culture but unfortunately it lacks institutes to promote its unique culture, she said.

To achieve the targets, she said, the department had signed an agreement with the Centre of Excellence in Arts and Design (CEAD), an affiliate of the Mehran University of Engineering and Technology Jamshoro, for certification.

She said the certification of courses was an important feature of this project because it would help trainees find jobs on the basis of a certificate.

She said that as many as 200 talented youths would be trained in different performing arts, 100 in vocal music, 70 in instrumental music and 30 in folk dance.

The trainees would be imparted training at the school in collaboration with Sur Society and they would receive certificates from the CEAD-MUET, she said.

The minister said that the school was aimed at serving the cause of art and artists without any discrimination. In order to ensure merit and transparency, advertisements had been published in Sindhi, Urdu and English newspapers and a selection committee had been formed to pick faculty and trainees before going for hunting talent.