Poets’ widow fears losing stipend

PESHAWAR: The widow of a noted Pashto poet, late Azam Khan (1937-69) has asked the Pakistan Academy of Letters (PAL) not to stop the stipend she had been receiving. PAL has sent her forms asking her to fill the details of her late husband’s properties and provide his manuscripts, otherwise they will stop payments. Pari Bibi 66, told The Express Tribune that over the she has lost Azam Khan’s works and now fears losing the stipend that was helping her buy medicines in old age.

Pari said her husband who was popularly known as Azam Da Kurwai had contributed to Pashto literary magazines and Pashto newspapers including Olas, Jamhoor-i-Islam, Laar, Baang-i- Haram and Shahbaz and also used to write features for Radio Pakistan, Peshawar on various social issues. He was contemporary of Hamza Baba, Dost Mohammad Khan Kamil, Qalandar Moomand, and Ajmal Khattak.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, January 9^th, 2019.