2-day puppet workshop kicks off at PNCA

ISLAMABAD: A two-day puppet workshop kicked off at the Pakistan National Council of the Arts (PNCA) on Monday. Puppeteer Farooq Qaiser — popular for his representation of the venerable Uncle Sargam on children’s programmes on Pakistan Television —  shared the history of puppetry in Pakistan and walked the participants of the workshop through the basics of puppetry including shadow puppetry, rod puppetry, string puppetry, glove puppetry and life-sign puppetry.

He highlighted the role of teachers and the training of parents.

Puppets are used to educate society about the way forward and the need for progress and human development, without unnecessarily aggravating social norms, Qaiser said.

Talking about the development of Uncle Sargam, Qaiser said that it was always a critic of the prevailing system and highlighted the various social issues and problems.

Qaiser further said that teachers are the main pillars of society.

He called for greater research when writing scripts to make them powerful. 

Published in The Express Tribune, March 10^th, 2020.