KARACHI, Sept 8: A budding artist, Gulzar of Umerkot, won the first position in a singing competition, part of the Maganhaar Music Show, organized on the concluding day of a cultural festival held at a local hotel late Tuesday night.
The second position was secured by Sabira Sultana of Ranipur whereas a young duo, Long Khan and his cousin Aslam Khan, was adjudged third. The jury comprised Sarwat Ali, Baidil Masroor and Wali Ram.
Some 16 young male and female budding singers, trained by Ustad Rasool Bakhsh Abro and Ustad Shafi Mohammad Faqir, hailing from Thar, Khairpur, Ranipur, Umerkot and Buzdarwara participated in the competition.
The festival titled: Cultural Action for Change was organized by an NGO, Actionaid, in collaboration with Dastak Society for Communication, Interactive Resource Centre and Folklore Society of Pakistan.
Two similar cultural festivals are to be held at Islamabad and Lahore in the next few days. These would, however, be one-day events. In the second session of the Maganhaar programme, singers Shaukat and Hayat, Mohammad Rafiq, Mehar Ali Sagar, Amiraan Begum, Zarina Dadoli, Noori and Krishin Bheel and others, from Thar and Cholistan, kept the large number of the audience at the festival spellbound.
A large number of Maganhaar artists from neighbouring Indian state of Rajesthan were also scheduled to participate in the cultural festival but despite efforts by the organizers, they could not get the visa.
Earlier, the Actionaid chief, Dr Fouzia Saeed, who also conducted the programme, said: "Though the Maganhaar community members are the inheritor of a great music tradition, they are hardly known in the country and are stigmatized for their profession, which is looked down upon."
She observed that a large number of young community members had dissociated itself from the traditional singing and music profession in an effort to get mixed with the mainstream society, which unfortunately, did not acknowledge or recognize the rich heritage that the communities like these possessed.
Ms Saeed said that her organization and the Folklore Society of Pakistan were collaborating with each other for the revival of their musical heritage to ensure that the dignity and pride the Maganhaars rightfully deserved, were restored to them.
She said that the Maganhaar community lived on both sides of the Pakistan-India border. Like many other divided communities, she added, this community had also blood relations living across the border.
In India, majority of Maganhaars lived in Jaisalmeer and Barmer districts of Rajesthan, whereas in Pakistan, the concentration appeared to be in Tharparkar, she said, adding that some of their families had also settled in other areas like the desert region of Cholistan in Southern Punjab.
Maganhaars are Muslims and their family genealogy can be traced back to the 16th and 17th centuries. Teachings of Sufi saints drew the community, along with some of their patrons, to embrace Islam.