Ghazal evening organized in Dallas

DALLAS: Pakistani American Association of Texas and Pakistan Christian Cultural Society of Dallas hosted an exciting Ghazal evening at a local Arlington hotel.

The internationally acclaimed Ghazal and Geet vocal and music maestro pair of Ustad Salamat Ali Khan and his life partner Azra Riaz presented an exhilarating performance with finest combination of music, choice of poetry, and excellence in choral presentation.

The quality of vocal performance in classical, and semi classical, Ghazal and popular music presented an un-forgettable evening for Pakistanis in Dallas. Ustad Salamat Ali Khan brought the Audiences of the musical program in a complete ecstatic as he took the performance level to its height.

Ustad Salamat Ali Khan's partner in life Azra Riaz rose people to their feet when she started with popular songs in Urdu and Punjabi, resulting in love and praise for her. The duos performance in diverse field of music included, Ghazal, Geet, Thumry and some popular songs kept coursing till late night and most of the audience kept their presence till 1:30 AM.

The event organizer and PAAT President Dr. Amir Suleman while addressing the audience said that Pakistani Americans are performing well and playing constructive role in wide variety of fields in our society. Our community is doing quite well in money and resources but lacks a community platform, which is resulting in increasingly unresolved community issues and unaddressed sociological problems.

PAAT is established to provide a community platform to bring attention to these issues and to plan for the long-term interest of the community. He said one of the future program we have is to provide health care community support program which will help community in the changing environment of health care needs, the program will be presented to the community soon.

He said that the resourcefulness of a community also bring challenges. People expect higher level of performance and we will put all of our efforts to provide higher level of services to community at large.

He said Tipu Sultan was a national hero, he had two swords one in his hand while he was martyred and one was at his home. His sword from his home was put to auction in London and was sold at a meager amount of two hundred thousand dollars. He said it is a shame that being such a resourceful community, we cannot honor our heroes.

He said that even in today's gathering we have people who can afford two hundred thousand dollar. It is a shame that we lack collective consciousness, resulting in loss of recognition of our historical personalities by others.

He said that PAAT program is future oriented as we should plan for our future generations instead of ad-hocism.

Mrs. Erum Samuel from Christian Community Cultural Society requested the audience in raising funds for United Christian Hospital in Lahore which was established in 1947. She said that this hospital which has served countless people including people coming from India in 1947. It needs urgent attention as the funding sources for it are getting dried up and requires new sources of funding. Christian community leader Javed Samuel thanked audience for their presence and introduced the performers to them.

Nazia Khan moderated the program. She especially recognized and thanked Mrs. Ruby Chaudhry for the elegant stage design and providing excellent table designs.

She also thanked prominent community leaders and various association's officers for their presence including Dr. Amanullah Khan, Dr. Basheer Ahmad, Syed Fayyaz Hassan, Raja Muzaffar Kashmiri, Siraj Butt, Aftab Siddiqui, Pervez Malik, Seema Malik, Dr. Qaiser Abbas, Dr. Javed Ajmal, Naeem Chaudhry, Tariq Chaudhry, Amir Memon, Ayaz Qureshi, Ruby Chaudhry, Javed Chaudhry, Saeed Qureshi, Shah Alam, Ghulam waraich, Syed Iqbal Haider, Awais Naseer and others for their cooperation and support.