Lyallpur Punjabi Sulaikh Mela kicks off.

FAISALABAD -- The fifth two-day long Lyallpur Punjabi Sulaikh Mela (Literary Festival) kicked off at the Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan Auditorium here on Thursday.

People from various walks of life thronged to the festival where Jhoomar dance and Heer singing enthralled them a lot. Entry to the event is free.

The literary festival is being organised by the Punjab Lok Sujag, in collaboration with the Faisalabad Arts Council and the Kuknas Organisation, a non-government organisation.

The first day of the festival had the welcome note by Amir Butt of the Punjab Lok Sujag while Jhoomer was performed by the team of the Jamia Muhammad Sharif College.

Fida Hussain Fida sang Shalok of Baba Farid. The guest of honour was Faraz Faisal while the chief guest was Barj S Dhahan, the founder of Dhahan Punjabi Literature Award from Canada.

Sofia Baidar, director of the Faisalabad Arts Council and Tohid Ahmed Chatha of Kuknas Foundation thanked the audience on the first day. Lal Band (Taimur Rehman) sang famous songs of the band.

Tariq Javeed, director Lyallpur Museum, said the festival would strengthen the Punjabi culture and Punjabi language. He said it was the need of the hour to apprise the youth of importance of Punjabi language and its culture as well and such...