Bangladeshi Cultural Troupe Arrives in Islamabad After 30 Years, 15-Member Team to Perform at PNCA and Lok Virsa

Islamabad: Thirty years is a long time for two stages to stay silent, but that silence ends this weekend. A 15-member Bangladesh cultural troupe landed in the federal capital on Friday, and its musicians, dancers and vocalists will perform at the Pakistan National Council of the Arts (PNCA) and Lok Virsa on Saturday and Sunday.

Who is in the delegation

The troupe is led by Md Mizanur Rahman, a joint secretary at Bangladesh’s Ministry of Cultural Affairs, and was received at Islamabad International Airport. Alongside the performers, it includes the noted painter and printmaker Md Abdus Satter — a hint that the four-day visit is meant to be about more than a couple of stage shows.

How the visit came about

The delegation is here at the invitation of the National Heritage and Culture Division. The trip follows Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s decision to push cultural exchanges between the two countries, and a Cultural Exchange Programme signed last year during Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar’s visit to Bangladesh.

For two evenings, Pakistani and Bangladeshi artists will share the same stage, trading songs, dances and stories their audiences grew up on. Officials on both sides are calling it cultural diplomacy, and for once the phrase fits: after a 30-year gap, this is the kind of people-to-people contact that tends to outlast the statements issued around it.