Younger singers enthral audience

KARACHI - Celebrating a unique tradition of colourful gala of Manganhaar music, the Folklore Society of Pakistan, with financial assistance of European Union has organised Manganhaar Music Festival at Arts Council of Pakistan the other day.
The young singers belong to the traditional Manganhaar Community of singers from the baithaks at Umer Kot, Rohri, Chachro, Mirpurkhas, Larkana, Jacobabad, Rahim Yar Khan participate in this dazzling singing competition of folk music.
Dr Fouzia Saeed, chief of Folklore Society of Pakistan, narrated the history of Manganhaar community and introduced the child singers, with their families, having sound knowledge of their family traditional music.
Wearing traditional dresses, the singers sung traditional folk songs beautifully that enthralled the audience and made them dance.
The cash prizes were also given to the winners of the singing competition. Farooq Ali from Umerkot, Rehman Ali from Rohri and Sher Khan from Umerkot stood 1st, 2nd and 3rd respectively.
Some special cash awards were also given to Munawwar Das, Om Parkash, Irfan Ali and others. All singers aged between 8 to 12 years.
Dr Fouzia further highlighted the grand inheritance of the Manganhaar community which dates back to the older lines of the civilisation and has strings of thrill and mystery.
She underlined the need to promote the folk heritage within and also outside the country and said that the Folklore society was founded in 1989 by well-known cultural personalities of Pakistan with the objective of promotion and protection of the rights of folk artists and fostering indigenous culture as a vehicle for social change.