A day-long session on “Lok Mela” at FLI
On 5th February 2007 FLI arranged a day-long session on planning Lok Melas at its office in Peshawar. The main facilitators, Mr. Shafiq Butt of Punjab Lok Sujag and Tauqeer Mustafa of the Network of Consumer Protection came to facilitate the event. Punjab Lok Sujag has successfully arranged such events throughout the Punjab for several years, and they want to encourage similar events in other language communities throughout Pakistan. So FLI requested them to come to FLI for this event.
Fifteen (15) participants from six (6) different languages took part in the event. Shafiq Butt distributed a bundle of different brochures and calendars of PLS to the participants. He also showed a video slide show of Lok Boli Melas that have taken place in the Punjab province. He also encouraged participants to come to a future Punjabi Lok Mela to experience the event first-hand and develop some new ideas. The participants responded enthusiastically to the presentation, participated in a variety of discussions and made some initial plans to organize such an event in their respective areas.
Following are some of the plans that were made:

Gawri group:
They plan a traditional game tournament on 21st of February 2007 on the occasion of International Mother Tongue day. This game is called “Bizel” in the local language.

Torwali group:
They are planning a musical concert and a poetry show in the area soon.

Khowar group:
One 14th of August 2007 they plan to organize a game show in the village Kalkatak in district Chitral. This is a stone throwing game. In Khowar it is called “Bokht pitsik”.

Palula group:
They plan to organize a musical show.

Dameli group:
They plan to organize a musical show too.

Hindko group:
They plan to have a musical show and a writing contest in Abbottabad soon.