Noted Pakistani folk singer lives in penury

ISLAMABAD - Zarsanga, who is considered the Queen of Pashto folk music, is living in poverty in a tent on the roadside in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

The singer, 65, moved into the tent along with her family after her home was washed away in the recent floods.

The singer told the News International that she had served Pashto music for 45 years and had given performances in Germany, the US, France, Russia and Afghanistan.

She said the government had not even provided her a tent and the one sheltering her family was borrowed from someone else.

Zarsanga belongs to a nomadic tribe that used to move to Afghanistan in summers and stay in Lakki Marwat during the winter.

She lamented that the floods, which ravaged the country, had again turned her into a nomad with neither the provincial government nor the cultural ministry doing anything for her.