Endowment fund: Journalists laud culture department’s initiative

Culture Journalists Forum says artists feel more secure now that their work is recognised

PESHAWAR: Members of the Culture Journalists Forum appreciated the provincial cultural department’s initiative of setting up an endowment fund for artistes, poets and writers.

“The K-P artistes community is rejuvenated and can play their due part in bringing peace to the militancy-ravaged province,” Culture Journalists Forum President Ihtisham Toru said at a meeting of the forum’s members, according to a handout issued on Sunday.

“I strongly believe supporting around 500 talented artists would send an encouraging message to every person associated with art, literature and culture.”



He added the forum’s efforts for the welfare of art would continue and they would also support the K-P government’s artist-friendly steps.

Toru said artists, poets and writers felt secure as their work has been recognised. “This was in fact our long-standing demand from successive governments to set up an endowment fund,” a participant said at the meeting. “The culture secretary, Azam Khan, deserves great praise for working hard to ameliorate the plight of the poor artists and to exhibit their talent.”

Another forum member said, “It is for the first time in the history of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa that artistes, poets, scholars and writers are being given tremendous recognition and huge financial support.”

The participants of the meeting were lauding the effort through which 500 artists, poets and writers would be provided monthly stipend till December.

However, earlier artistes from Hazara Division had flayed the committee which chose the 500 artistes, saying it comprised of people who had nothing to do with art. They said many talented artistes from Hazara had been ignored, based on linguistic biases.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 8^th,  2016.