Pakistan National Council of the Arts and National Institute of Folk and Traditional Heritage (Lok Virsa), Ministry of National Heritage and Integration, is all set to celebrate 135th birth anniversary of the founder of Pakistan, Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, (today) Sunday.
To mark the day, the PNCA and Lok Virsa are creating a colourful float to pay homage to the father of the nation. The main theme of the float is unity, faith and discipline. This float will represent culture of all the provinces and federating units of Pakistan—Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, Balochistan, Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan.
The float will also display photographic representation of Quaid-e-Azam and his unique belongings. Folk dance groups like Dharees dance, Sammi dance and Khattak dance will perform all the way in front and back of the float.
This unique cultural float will start on December 25 from Parade Avenue in front of the Parliament building at 11am and move along Blue Area up to Sector F-10 via Zero Point. The float, travelling along its prescribed route at around 4pm, will return to the Parade Avenue where special performances of folk artists will be arranged.
A documentary on Quaid-e-Azam will be shown on a large screen inside the lobby of the PNCA. A large number of diplomats, high-ranking government officials, cultural personalities and general public are expected to attend.
Pakistan National Museum of Ethnology, (Heritage Museum) and Pakistan Monument Museum at Shakarparian will also remain open for the general public from 10am to 7pm. In order to encourage maximum participation, a special 50 percent rebate on the entry ticket for Pakistani adults is being granted. Since December 25 also marks Christmas, a cake-cutting ceremony as well as erection of a beautiful Christmas tree in front of the Heritage Museum, Shakarparian, is also an integral part of the daylong programmes.