KARACHI: Supporters of the Citizens Foundation hosted the finale of an interschool fundraising and singing competition, Obhartay Sitaray (OS) 2019 on Saturday, says a statement. First Lady Samina Arif Alvi was the guest of honour.

Mrs Alvi appreciated the initiative and admired efforts of Citizens Foundation in the field of education.

Obhartay Sitaray is a singing competition for school-going students, aimed at developing national pride in the young generation as only Pakistani songs are selected for the competition.

The competition started with preliminary rounds from Nov 4 to 8 followed by the finale on Nov 16, which is a competition among the best voices in each genre.

Over 200 plus teams from 136 schools of Karachi participated in the competition. The finale was judged by Tina Sani, Sultan Arshad, Salman Alvi, Shahid Hamid, Afshan Ahmed and S.B. John.

The event provided a unified platform to support educational efforts being extended by the TCF for less-privileged students, at the same time encouraging the young, emerging talent of Pakistan.

Commenting on this event, Yasmeen Nageeb Basir, head of the programme, said: “We started OS eight years back, with only a few schools but over the years it has almost doubled. We realised our country has so much talent and children who could sing did not get the opportunity to show their talent. Now students from OS are performing at different platforms and a few recently went abroad to perform with Salman Ahmed. Moreover, this is a two-pronged programme where children also raise funds for other children happily and realise that this country needs education.”

Published in Dawn, November 18th, 2019