LAHORE, March 5: The drama continued well after the Punjab University Second Inter-University Performing Arts Festival, with the Punjab governor providing it the climax.

Governor Khalid Maqbool had to say "shut up" twice to silence the Islamia University, Bahawalpur, (IUB) dramatic team, who continued to interrupt his prize distribution speech, chanting "we want justice".

The governor was there to award prizes among the winning teams as well as presenting shields to all participating teams from 11 Punjab universities at Alhamra Hall on Wednesday.

The IUB dramatic team was seemingly not pleased with the judges' decision and had reportedly communicated their resentment to the governor while receiving their participation shield.

As the governor went on to announce cash prizes for the winners, the IUB students started chanting slogans and continued to build up the momentum of their protest.

The governor tried to pacify the protesters saying it would be the negation of art if the five-day festival ended at an unpleasant note. However, the IUB students remained adamant that they had been ‘wronged’.

Visibly irritated by the behaviour of IUB students, the governor said: “Listen to me” and finally ended up saying “shut up” twice. Following was the pin drop silence in the jam-packed hall.

The governor then said sermonising it was highly disappointing attitude on the part of the students who created fuss in an otherwise lively event, and advised the protesters to learn to lead their lives.

“If you will walk out on every failure, then you will not be able to win any match in your life,” he said.

The governor also assured the agitating students he would himself come to the IUB and give them their ‘prize’.

Earlier, the governor said the learning of fine arts was extremely essential to understand the harsh realities of life. He hoped that narrow mindedness would be eliminated from society as the universities had taken a front seat to promote fine arts and music, besides providing quality education to the students.

Lauding the Punjab University College of Art and Design (PUCAD) for organising the second performing arts festival and appreciating all participating teams, the governor commended the University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore, dramatic team saying that its “performance was wonderful by all standards”.

The UET had re-staged their performance “Zindagi Maut Aur Maqsad”, for the governor, after bagging the Best Play trophy.

Besides trophies, the governor announced Rs150,000 cash prize for the UET dramatic team and Rs100,000 cash prize for the Bahauddin Zikariya University, Multan, team, that bagged the Best Mime trophy. He also announced cash prize of Rs100,000 for the PUCAD drama team, which hosted the festival.

The best original script, best performance (male) and the best director trophies were lifted by Sheikh Awais, Usman Rauf and Kashif Mirza of UET, respectively.

The best performance (female) trophy was bagged by Najamul Sehar of the King Edward Medical University (KEMU) and the best character actor trophy was received by IUB's Akram. The award for the best actor (in comic role) was secured by Qaiser of University of Arid Agriculture, Rawalpindi, while Waqas Sher Khan of the KEMU was declared the best actor in negative role.

The trophies for Best Light, Best Make-Up, and Best Costumes were bagged by IUB, KEMU and Fatima Jinnah Women University, Rawalpindi, respectively.

Besides winning universities, the participation shields were also given to the dramatic teams from the Punjab University, University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, University of Education, University of Gujrat and Agriculture University, Faisalabad.Speaking on the occasion, PU Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Mujahid Kamran also lauded the PUCAD principal and the festival organisers for successfully holding the festival.

Ustad Tari Khan, Ustad Rustam Fateh Ali Khan, Fareeha Pervaiz and PUCAD students performed on the occasion.