RAWALPINDI: A singing competition was conducted by the Punjab Arts Council under the Punjab Chief Minister Talent Hunt Programme on Sunday.

The competition was overseen by the Rawalpindi Arts Council.

Maria Kanwal from Rawalpindi secured first position and was given a prize of Rs150,000, Ahsan Ullah f rom Taxila came second and was given Rs100,000 and Meher Anjum of Rawalpindi came third and was given a cash prize of Rs70,000.

Five awards of encouragement, each worth Rs20,000, were given to Umair Ali, Akbar Ali, Raja Amir, Tehseen Ali and SarfarazAtif.

Of the 600 singers selected during auditions, only 24 from Rawalpindi, Attock, Jhelum and Chakwal reached the semi-final of the competition. The singers were aged between 18 and 35.

Khalid Siddiqui, Syed Tahir Raza and Mubashara Hafeez were the judges for the event during which singers performed semi-classical and folk songs.

The top three singers will take part in a province wide competition to be held in Lahore. All the participants were given shields.

MNA Tahira Aurangzeb, MPAs Raja Hanif, Tehseen Fawad and Lubna Rehan were also present on the occasion.