Singing for a cause: Zeb and Haniya treat Islamabad to a night of soft music

TCF holds a fund raiser in collaboration with Turkish embassy.

ISLAMABAD:

The city’s elite were treated to an evening of rich entertainment at the Turkish embassy on Friday.

Famous pop and folk singers Zeb and Haniya were the prime attraction, followed by a dinner that was attended by several businessmen and Turkish Ambassador Mustafa Babur.

Following two short speeches by The Citizen Foundation’s (TCF) Vice Chairperson and Ambassador Babur, Zeb and Haniya made their way to the stage to a warm welcome from the crowd, who were eagerly waiting for their performance.

Known for their diverse and melodious songs in Pushto, Urdu, Persian and Turkish languages, the duo began their performance by singing “Chup”, the first song that they penned down years ago. Accompanied by drums, flute and guitars, the singers serenaded the audience with their soft vocals, which were reminiscent to Nazia Hasan’s voice.

They went on to sing their Pushto songs, followed by songs in Turkish language, mesmerising the Turkish crowd who were seen tapping their feet and snapping their fingers to the beat.

The band’s famous song “Paimana Bitte” received whistles and shouts from the crowd, who were overjoyed by their spectacular performance and demanded an encore from the singers, bringing them back to the stage to sing one last song.

TCF, a non-profit organisation, works to provide “quality education” to underprivileged children of the country, according to its representatives. The organisation is currently supporting 102,000 children with 730 schools in over 83 locations, which are maintained through donations from individuals and corporations.

Nearly 72% of TCF students have made it to intermediate level (as compared to a national average of 40%), which is indicative of their excellence towards educational progress and the reason behind the gala being jam-packed with people.

As a Turkish national put it, “I am glad that I got to enjoy a beautiful evening for a good cause.”

The evening was organised by TCF in collaboration with the Turkish embassy to create awareness on the state of education among underprivileged students and to raise funds for them.

The organisers had arranged the evening such that a corporate table would generate enough funds to sponsor a child’s high school education, while a smaller table would raise funds for a child’s middle school education.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 11^th, 2011.