LAHORE: The five-day Mela Chiraghan, which began on April 6 at the Punjab Institute of Language, Art and Culture (Pilac), is roping in large audiences.
The mela, by Pilac and the Punjab Information and Culture Department, has traditional food stalls, book stalls, play areas for children and live music. A number of writers, intellectuals and poets from all over Pakistan are participating in the ongoing festival.
On Friday, the mela hosted an evening titled ‘Lok Ras’ which featured folk singers and poets. Habib Ali, Shabana Abbas, Muneeba Akbar and Tahir Pervaiz Mehdi sang folk songs. Also, a poetry sitting of regional languages was part of the festival on Friday were poets from all over the country recited their verses.
Earlier on April 6, the festival began with a conference on sufi poet Shah Hussain, which was presided over by Qazi Javed. The conference titled ‘Ideological concept of Shah Husain’s poetry’ had a number of speakers who read their papers on the very topic. Speakers included Allah Baksh Buzdar from Balochistan, Syed Amjad Zahid from Sakardu, Nasir Ali Syed from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Dr Jamil Ahmed, Dr Nasir Khan, Dr Mussarat Kalanchvi, Dr Ghafir Shehzad and Syed Akhtar Jaffri.
The festival also featured a folk music evening which was moderated by film actor Madeeha Shah. The singers among which were Ustad Hamid Ali Khan, Ghulam Abbas, Saira Naseem, Ustad Shafqat Ali Khan, Chand Khan and Suraj Khan.
Published in Dawn, April 8th, 2017