New Delhi: The ‘Queen of Pashtun folklore’, Zarsanga — a folk singer from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa — has made headlines in Pakistan after being rendered a pauper.
Naimat Khan, a reporter for the Arab News, took to Twitter last week to describe the squalid conditions in which the singer, recipient of the Pride of Performance Award, has been living in.
“She is #Zarsanga, the ‘Queen Of Pashtun Folklore’ and recipient of Pride of Performance Award, who is living in poor condition in Kohat, KP. Her Son Hijran told me that govt of KP (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) has stopped her honorarium,” Khan tweeted.
She is #Zarsanga, the ‘Queen Of Pashtun Folklore’ and recipient of Pride of Performance Award, who is living in poor condition in Kohat, KP. Her Son Hijran told me that govt of KP has stopped her honorarium @kamrankbangash @MehmoodKhan pic.twitter.com/cydvnYqWPu
— Naimat Khan (@NKMalazai) March 19, 2021
The Pride of Performance Award is the highest national literary award of Pakistan that recognises people who have made contributions to the field of literature, art, sports, science and education.
Born in 1946 into a nomadic tribe, Zarsanga began to sing at an early age as it was the tribe’s main vocation.
According to a Dawn report, Zarsanga would travel all over Pakistan with her tribe and perform at several events. By 19, she had become a popular singer among the Pashtuns of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
“The non-Pashto sections of the country discovered her when she began to record songs for Radio Pakistan in the late 1960s and early 1970s,” the report notes.
In 2017, however, the desert singer and her family were attacked by a mob of villagers over a monetary dispute. Since then, the singer is said to have been living in a tent with other nomad families as she was forced to give up her house.
The singer had also claimed that there has been little support from the government.
#SaveWaterSavePakFuture
On Sunday, the hashtag #SaveWaterSavePakFuture was trending on Twitter as several users attempted to draw attention to the country’s worsening water situation.
Hans Masroor Badvi, the central deputy secretary of information for the Pakistani province of Sindh tweeted saying, “No matter, how much rich you are, you can’t live without water [sic].”
No matter, how much rich you are, you can't live without water. #SaveWaterSavePakFuture
— Hans Masroor Badvi (@hansbadvi) March 21, 2021
Another user, @gumnamhero12, tweeted about how the current laws are insufficient in mitigating the crisis.
There are few effective channels to mitigate the water crisis. Current laws do not reflect the poor state of Pakistani water resources and governance is lacking.#SaveWaterSavePakFuture pic.twitter.com/iZfRRhd17I
— گمنام (@gumnamhero12) March 21, 2021
The tweets come ahead of the meeting between India and Pakistan in New Delhi over the Indus water sharing issue.
According to a report in India Today, Pakistan’s Foreign Office spokesperson Zahid Hafeez Chaudhry said that a host of issues under the treaty will be discussed in the meeting, including the objections on the designs of Pakal Dul and Lower Kalnai Hydroelectric Plants.
Pakistan solely relies on the Indus river valley system. The Indus river and its tributaries form the backbone of the neighbouring country’s agriculture and food production but is said to be the second-most over-stressed aquifer.
Pakistan is listed among the world’s 36 most water-stressed countries, according to a 2015 report by the International Monetary Fund. “Per capita annual water availability has dropped, fundamentally due to population growth, from 5,600 cubic meters at independence to the current level of 1,017 cubic meters, and is projected to decline further under the current infrastructure and institutional conditions,” the report had highlighted.
Pakistani women scale heights in rescue teams
Women in Pakistan’s mountains have been at the centre of disaster relief efforts.
A report in the Dawn notes the experience of Shamim Bano, a middle-school teacher who also teaches Afghan women to do search and rescue work.
She is among 50,000 volunteers, half of them women, who have been trained by the Aga Khan Agency for Habitat, Pakistan, in community-based disaster risk management.
Bano said that as a young girl, she would often notice how purdah came in the way of rescue.
She is quoted as saying, “Often men found it awkward to save purdah-observing women during a disaster, leaving them to die.”
Rescue and relief workers are a necessity in Pakistan’s northernmost region of Gilgit-Baltistan, which has three of the world’s highest mountain ranges and is constantly disturbed by tremors, avalanches, landslides and glacier lake outburst.
Kashmala Batool, the only woman referee in National Women Football Championship
Kashmala Batool is one of the only three active women referees in Pakistan and the only woman referee in the ongoing 13th National Women Football Championship that kicked off 9 March in Karachi.
According to a Geo TV report, Kashmala holds a Masters degree in physical education and has been working at girls college as the PE head.
The report also quoted her as saying, “I want to see a day when these women championship matches are supervised by only women referees.”
Kashmala said that she also wishes to supervise matches in FIFA and AFC competitions.
Two of the other women referees in the game are from Balochistan.
Pakistan minister hits out at PM Modi’s tweet wishing Imran Khan speedy recovery
Prime Minister Narendra Modi Saturday wished his Pakistani counterpart Imran Khan a “speedy recovery” after the latter tested positive for Covid-19.
“Best wishes to Prime Minister @ImranKhanPTI for a speedy recovery from COVID-19,” Modi had tweeted.
Best wishes to Prime Minister @ImranKhanPTI for a speedy recovery from COVID-19.
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) March 20, 2021
His tweet had spurred a series of reactions among which was a tweet by the Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad Khan.
“Mr MODI of all the world you are the last person from whom we need good wishes of health for our PM sahb,” Ali tweeted
Mr MODI of all the world you are the last person from whom we need good wishes of health for our PM sahb.
Instead of sending fake good wishes STOP GENOCIDE IN KASHMIR.
STOP KILLINGS IN KASHMIR.
STOP ETHNIC CLEANSING & DEMOGRAPHIC CHANGE IN KASHMIR.
Give KASHMIRIS their RIGHTS ! https://t.co/V8lFIB2pk7
— Ali Muhammad Khan (@Ali_MuhammadPTI) March 20, 2021
A member of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, Ali has been elected twice to the National Assembly.
In 2014, Ali was at the centre of a controversy after he along with six of his supporters stormed into the Shergarh police station over the delay in the verification of certain documents of a resident.
The incident resulted in injuries to three policemen.
(Edited by Neha Mahajan)
Also read: Not going to jail, says singer Meesha Shafi, couple trolled for renting lion cub at wedding