Pakistani children highlight unity at colorful event

Pakistani youth social clubs joined hands last weekend to observe Pakistan’s Defense Day and pay homage to the martyrs of the Pakistani Army who sacrificed their lives for the sovereignty of their motherland.
The Bravo Pakistan youth and social organization organized the event, which was attended by over 350 Pakistani families and community elders.
Khayyam Akbar, deputy mission head and minister at the Pakistani Embassy, chaired the event.
“To protect our physical boundaries, we need to protect our social and cultural boundaries and highlight them as the soft image of Pakistan. Who else can do this better than children and youth?” said Akbar.
“The unprecedented national unity that the people and armed forces of Pakistan showed on Sept. 6, 1965, is indeed a milestone in Pakistan’s history,” he added.
Slideshows, retrospects on Sept. 6, poems, skits, solos, bands, dances and songs permeated the evening.
Irshad Saleem, a well-known poet, painter and writer, congratulated the children on their short skits about day-to-day civic and social habits.
Entitled “Pakistaniat,” the young performers presented Irshad Saleem’s idea of presenting five common civic senses related to issues within Pakistani society.
These civic senses are based on fostering positive thinking, warning against littering and disposing garbage on open fields and streets, abstaining from back-biting, caring for neighbors and the neighborhood and shunning sectarianism.
Riyadh-based Pakistani community elder Nusrat Mirza and poets Javed Akhtar Javed, Fareed Bhutta and Waqar Naseem Wamiq also attended the program.
While poet Akhtar recited a poem in Punjabi language, Wamiq recited three poems in Urdu and both were well received by the audience.
The show kicked off with a performance by teen Arouba Khawar.
Omar Khawar, Zain Jameel, Mohib Khan also performed different dances.
The Aatish band played a couple of popular national songs and ghazals. Zalouj Band, as well as two other young singers, Moabbir and Adnan Ali Khan, sang songs highlighting friendship and loyalty.