Lok Virsa Complex live with colours of Balochistan

Depicting the indigenous folk culture, folk music, arts and crafts, traditional cuisine from Balochistan, a four-day Balochi Festival started at Lok Virsa Complex, Shakarparian on Friday with a prestigious inaugural ceremony.

In his introductory remarks, Lok Virsa Executive Director Khalid Javaid welcomed the participants. He said Lok Virsa started artisans-at-work festival in year 1982, which later attained the household name as “Lok Mela” and had been regularly featuring in its annual activities for the last 25 years.

He said due to the unfortunate wave of extremism in the country, the festival could not take place for the last three years. Javaid said in order to ensure continuity of this public demand event and provide incentives to the practitioners of Pakistan’s cultural heritage, Lok Virsa had decided to organise a series of short duration festivals separately highlighting cultural and traditions of a particular province/region.

He thanked Balochistan government, particularly its Department of Culture, Small Industries Corporation and non-governmental organisation ‘Ahan’ for cooperation and support to bring artisans, folk singers, rural musicians, folk dance groups and Balochi traditional cuisine such as Sajji and many others to Islamabad from the remotest parts of the province. He assured the artisans and artists community that Lok Virsa would continue to support them.

Underlining the practical steps taken by Lok Virsa recently for promotion and preservation of Balochi culture, the ED said establishment of two children folklore societies in different schools in Sibbi with a view to make school children aware of their folklores and traditional culture was worth mentioning.

Javaid also announced that Lok Virsa’s “Lok Mela” would take place in the second week of October 2010, which would be attended by hundreds of artisans, artists, musicians and song and dance ensembles from all over Pakistan. He said Lok Virsa was also planning to organise folk festivals on the pattern of Lok Mela in other cities including Multan, Lahore, Karachi, Quetta, Muzaffarabad and if possible in Peshawar so that people living in these cities could be informed about the indigenous folk culture and traditions of whole Pakistan.

Bilal Jamali, provincial secretary culture, lauded the efforts of Lok Virsa in holding the festival in a befitting manner. Underlining the importance of the province, he said Balochistan was a distinct land and the people of this land were practicing distinct folk heritage. It is also a cradle of world’s oldest civilisation, he said, adding, it is now high time that the colours of this province should be projected at national level. Folk arts and their practitioners need patronage and encouragement, he added. He said Balochistan Festival was an important effort in this direction.

Representing the federal ministry of culture, additional secretary SM Tahir also spoke on the occasion. He assured full cooperation of the ministry in documentation, promotion and projection of Pakistan’s traditional culture with special reference to the Balochistan province. He hoped that the federal and the provincial cultural bodies would work jointly to achieve the common goal of promoting and safeguarding cultural heritage.

Outstanding folk artists from Balochistan also performed during the inaugural ceremony and received appreciation from the audience.