Drama legend Qavi Khan mesmerised the audience of twin cities here late Thursday through his performance featuring the life of literary legend Saadat Hasan Manto entitled “Aik Sadi Ka Manto”. The script of play was written by Arshad Chehal directed by William Pervez while the performance was arranged by Pakistan National Council of the Arts (PNCA) in collaboration with Ministry of National Heritage and Integration in connection with Manto’s hundred year celebrations. Qavi Khan entertained the audience with his masterly skills of performing arts and performed role of Manto along with supporting actor Tahira Imam.
The story was based on events of the life of Manto and the criticism of people on his writing that disturbed his family life. The play highlighted the struggle of Manto for writing against hypocrisy, corruption and other social evils which he presented in a bold way.
Speaking on the occasion, Director General PNCA, Tauqeer Nasir said the play was an attempt to pay tribute to Manto for bringing correction to the society besides promoting serious and thought provoking theater to provide healthy entertainment for the audience. Such events play an important role in highlighting and resolving the issues of the society through artistic expressions that serve the audience as strong medium. Manto’s writings occupy a unique place with reflection and identification of social evils through bold expressions, he said. The PNCA scheduled 3-day plays to celebrate the 100th birth anniversary of prominent short story writer of Urdu language, Saadat Hassan Manto to pay tribute to his services in the field of literature. Combining psychoanalysis with human behavior, he was arguably one of the best short story tellers of the 20th century.
Manto’s concerns on the socio-political issues, from local to global level are revealed in his series, Letters to Uncle Sam, and those to Pandit Nehru. Manto created a new tell-all style of writing sketches and gave some of his best writings to the literary world.
PMI to organise 5-day course : Pakistan Manpower Institute (PMI) will organise a five-day course on “maintaining high performance” from June 4.
The course will be inaugurated by Director General PMI, Muhammad Azam. A total 30 officers from public and private sector organizations will participate in the workshop. The objective of the course is to impart knowledge to the participants about performance management systems, tools and techniques for maximizing performance of employees by applying best performance, management practices in their respective organizations in order to achieve organizational results. Speakers from Academic Institutions will deliver lectures to the participants.
Jirga led by MNA call on Malik: Jirga led by Member National Assembly (MNA) Akhunzada Chattan on Friday called on Interior Minister Rehman Malik and informed problems relating to their areas.
The Jirga members included Khawja Nazimuddin, Malik Khan Zeb Salarzai, Malik Abdul Jabar and Malik Shahab, said a press release. Interior Minister thanked Jirga members and particularly Salarzai tribe and Utmankhail tribe for their sacrifices and support in the war against anti-state elements. The minister announced Rs 5 million for the sports goods for the tribe.
