A lecture-demonstration by well known cartoonist; a cut in the charges of facilitative assistance extended by Lahore Arts Council; arrival in the city of a delegation of Indian scholars and interest shown by local literati in the observance of Urs of Punjabi poet Waris Shah were the main highlights of cultural events in Lahore this past week.
Renowned cartoonist Javed Iqbal was the guest speaker at the Nazriati Summer School, Lahore on July 22, where he demonstrated his skill at drawing cartoons and caricatures, which the audience comprising mostly school children enjoyed very much.
In his opening remarks Javed Iqbal made an observation that the objective before a cartoonist, when drawing the caricatures of different persons, was not the degradation of someone. But he focuses his attention on problems of the people created as a sequel to the wrong policies of a member of the government or a politician.
Today, generally the people think of cartoons as funny drawings of people or animals doing funny things. But cartoons are not always funny in that sense. The word cartoon was first used about 450 years ago to describe the outline drawing, which an artist made as a plan before he painted a picture on a wall.
In UK about 150 years ago, there were some artists who liked to make drawings that made fun of some of the strange things people did. These drawings were called caricatures. At first, these caricatures were printed separately. Later, when many of them were printed together in a magazine, they were called cartoons. Punch, an English magazine, which is still in circulation, was the first to print these cartoons. Very often they made fun of important people.
Almost every Pakistani newspaper has political cartoons on its editorial page, which often make the editors' opinions on certain issues clearer than words can. In Pakistan, the first cartoonist to make name was Anwar Ali of the Pakistan Times, who used his pen name Nanna to make fun of politicians and for offering comments on important contemporary political, social and economic issues. Javed Iqbal, who spoke at the referenced function, was perhaps the first cartoonist, who started his career with an Urdu daily newspaper in Lahore. A whole lot of cartoonists later emerged on the scene to take up assignments both in English and vernacular newspapers.

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The Punjab Minister for Culture Mr. Shaukat Bhatti at a seminar on Showbiz Journalism held in Lahore on July 24 broke the welcome news about the decision of the provincial government to slash rent of the halls of Lahore (Alhamra) Arts Council. That he said was done to promote more cultural events. He also announced that more cultural presentations would be organized at Lahore Fort, which would give further boost to cultural activities in Lahore.
Art promoting and cultural organizations in the city have often complained about what they called high rate of rent charged by the administration of Lahore Arts Council for its halls and facilitative assistance it provides to outside groups. These private sector organizations often claimed that it was not possible for them to break even after the presentation of their programmes with the result that some of them simply vanished from the cultural scene. With the promised reduction in the rent of halls and charges for other facilities provided by LAC, some of the defunct organizations might get another lease of life.
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Tariq Aziz, the host of one of the most successful stage shows of Pakistan Television, has returned to the mini screen after a long hiatus. He has renamed the old Neelam Ghar to Bazm-e-Tariq, which has already been aired by PTV on more than one occasion. However, a large cross section of people in Lahore, including lawyers, politicians and academia has criticized the management of official electronic medium for allowing a convict to host one of its programme. They claim that a person who has served a prison term on charges of committing contempt of country's apex court was not eligible to participate in any programmes for which payments are made from the public exchequer. .
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Lahore-based musicians, poets and intellectuals have shown great interest in the annual Urs of Punjabi poet Waris Shah, whose collection embodied in Heer, has almost immortalized his persona. A large number of them visited the mazar of the poet in Sheikhupra district, located some 25 miles from Lahore on July 25 to join the observance of his death anniversary. A delegation comprising 12 scholars from India also crossed the Wagha border on July 24 and straight away drove to the tomb to pay homage to the late poet.