PESHAWAR:February 02: About 196 young boys and girls hailing from different districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) spoke in Urdu, English and Pashto at a talent hunt show at the Nishtar Hall on Wednesday.

The aspirant artistes from Bannu, Dera Ismail Khan, Lakki Marwat, Charsadda, Swabi, Mardan, Nowshera, Peshawar and Fata displayed their raw talent in personality communication skills, modeling, acting, singing, comparing, and content writing.

It was the first event of its kind arranged by the Culture Journalists Forum (CJF) in which young college and university students aged 15 to 25 years participated in ‘on the stage’ live performance.

A jury evaluated their talent and performance. The event was aimed at introducing youth to new media exposure, skill development, capacity building and inculcating sense of rediscovering the lost cultural identity.

CJF President Ihtesham Toru in his opening remarks said the event would be extended to other districts of the province to unearth the new talent in different disciplines of the performing arts.

He said that CJF would provide access to the aspiring artistes to display their hidden talent and would encourage the educated youth to take part in healthy cultural activities.

Experts including Shaukat Ali Khan, Prof Dr Yar Muhammad Maghmoom, Rokhan Yousafzai, Arshad Hussain, Israr Bacha, Muhammad Ilyas, Bakhtiar Khattak and Director of the Culture Directorate Pervez Khan were present on the occasion.

Umair Ali, a student of the BBA (Honours) from a private university told this scribe that youngsters like him wanted to come forward and play their due role in highlighting the soft image of the Pakhtuns.

Anwar Khan a participant from Shabqadar said: “I am teaching at a local school drawing a salary of Rs3,000 per month, I love acting. Even if am not selected I shall not quit practicing. In school I groom my students so that they grow up as art-lovers and not as philistines.”

Another participant, Samina Afridi said that youngsters should be given chance to exhibit their latent talent. “I want to become a singer and spread peace through it,” she added. The participants would be called for a closed session and results would be shared with them.The news.