SAARC music show out of tune

By Khurram Shahzad

ISLAMABAD: The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) music show is facing failure even before it begins because no member country has nominated a singer to perform in the event, despite requests from organisers and the Pakistani Foreign Ministry.

Pakistan Television (PTV), on behalf of the SAARC Secretariat and the Pakistani Foreign Ministry, planned a musical concert in Islamabad to take place during the summit of heads of states. They invited singers from all member countries to perform in the event next month.

Almost a month ago, PTV sent invitations to all SAARC member countries asking for their top singers through the Foreign Office and requesting they nominate their representative singers to perform in the show as soon as possible.

“However, no country has submitted the name of any singer or communicated whether they will have representatives in the show,” a source said.

The source said major organisers and hosts for the PTV show have sent out new invitations with reminders to all SAARC countries and have again requested nominations of artists and singers.

“All members were not certain that the summit would take place at the time when invitations were sent out because confirmation from Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was not available. So, they did not nominate their artists for the show,” an official said.

However since the prime minister has now confirmed his participation, there are no hurdles in the way of the SAARC summit and we are hopeful that members will nominate performers and send their singers, he added.

Confirming that fresh invitations have been sent out, an official said that Pakistan has sent reminders to all countries and hopes that they will get back with answers and nominations very soon.

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