LAHORE – The University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences (UVAS) Drama Society on Tuesday lifted the All-Pakistan Drama Competition 2012 organised by the Punjab Lok Rehas.
The competition was part of the three-day cultural competition-cum-festival held at the National College of Arts and UVAS, and participated by 25 dramatic societies of educational institutions across the country, of which 14 were selected for the competition.
UVAS Dramatic Society Natak Mandali staged ‘Nim Di Chhanwain’ and won the overall first position in different categories, including that of Best Play. The best male actor award went to Muhammad Waqas, while Tayyaba Khalid was declared as the best female actor.
‘Nim Di Chhanwain’ is a critique that human relationships are more important than wealth. The play unfolds the story of a boy belonging to an underprivileged family who fell in love with his cousin hailing from a well-off family.
The story reaches its climax when the boy proposes to his cousin and his request is turned down. The boy eventually leaves his home to look for greener pastures and makes a fortune for himself; while the girl’s family suffers economic setback but still the boy agrees to marry her.
The UVAS play, which highlights the village culture as well as promotes Punjabi language, will now be performed in the International Theatre Festival, to be held in March 2013 in India.
Natak, the performing arts society of the Punjab University College of Art and Design, performed a light comedy ‘Dil A Pakistani’, written by Ahmed Bilal, at the competition.
Using Punjabi as the medium of communication, the play is a hilarious comedy with a cutting edge satire that penetrates deep into the hearts of the viewers. In a series of layered comedy sessions, the play renders the true political scene of Pakistan.
The performance revolves around a group of sloshed people who imitate the true essence of Pakistani Awam. With their ever-changing moods and topics, they gab about the political and social condition of the country and its outcome.
The play illustrates some very serious and disturbing problems that an average Pakistani faces, such as electricity, clean water, food, petrol and gas, and how their shortage or unavailability affects their daily life.
Theatre groups from Comsat Institute of Information Technology (Lahore), Government College University (Faisalabad), University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences (Lahore), University of Lahore, Bahauddin Zakariya University (Multan), University of Sargodha, University of Gujrat, Quaid-i-Azam University (Islamabad), University of Agriculture (Faisalabad), University of the Punjab, Lahore University of Engineering and Technology (Lahore) and Bahauddin Zakariya University (Sahiwal Campus) participated in the event.
Also, the Punjab University has awarded four PhD degrees in the fields of English, Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Arabic, and Physics.
As per details, the university awarded PhD degrees to Robeena Tahir in the subject of English after approval of her thesis entitled ‘A Study of Historical Fiction of Women Writers of the Subcontinent: A Gendered Perspective’; Ambreen Ahmed in the subject of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics after approval of her thesis entitled ‘Efficacy of Bacterial Hormone in Plant Growth Promotion’; Faiz Ullah Dar in the subject of Arabic after approval of his thesis entitled ‘Abu Al-Ala‘ Al-Ma‘ Arri and Allama Muhammad Iqbal (A Literary, Critical and Comparative Study)’; and Ghulam Murtaza in the subject of Physics after approval of his thesis entitled ‘Ferromagnetism Recognition Approaches Based on GaN and ZnO Doped with Rare Earth Metals for Spintronics Applications’.