The National Institute of Folk & Traditional Heritage – Lok Virsa on Friday organised Mehfil-e-Samaa – an evening of traditional qawwali at its media centre. Famous qawwal Akhtar Sharif and Sabir Hussain enthralled the audience with their performance at the Mehfil-e-Samaa. The event was attended by a large number of people from different walks of life. They highly appreciated Lok Virsa for arranging the special qawwali evening to entertain the residents of twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi. Earlier, senior officials of Lok Virsa welcomed the audience and said that qawwali, one of the most ancient and sacred forms of music, was being promoted through young artists. They said that qawwali evening was organised to entertain people of the twin cities. The officials said that qawwali is a musical form closely linked to Sufi traditions of Islam and the mystic practices developed by Sufi scholars to achieve closeness to God. Published in Daily Times, October 20th 2018.