Literary endeavour: Multan to get Academy of Letters office, says Rajwana

Writers demand Khwaja Fareed Chair at Islamia University.

MULTAN:

Governor Rafique Rajwana assured a delegation of writers and poets on Wednesday that he would soon recommend to the federal government that an office of Academy of Letters be established in Multan.

He also assured the delegation that he would oversee arrangements for a writers’ conference planned in August. He asked the organisers, Sukhanwar Forum, to send him a report on preparations for the conference. He praised the decision to gather writers and poets of various regional languages at the conference and said such events were needed to promote these languages.

Rajwana said poets and writers were great assets of any society. “It is the writers and poets who highlight the problems faced by any society,” he said.

Rajwana said he would look into all suggestions put forth by the delegation including honourary doctorate degrees for accomplished writers and poets, free medical treatment and representation of writers and poets from southern districts in the Punjab Writers’ Welfare Fund Committee.

Other suggestions made at the meeting were the establishment of an institute of languages in Multan on the pattern of the Punjab Institute of Languages, establishment of a Khwaja Fareed Chair at Islamia University Bahawalpur, provision of free air and train travel for writers, assistance with publishing, quota in Central Superior Services for applicants from southern districts and introduction of Seraiki as an optional subject in the CSS exam.

Later, the delegation presented a Seraiki Ajrak to the governer.

The delegation included Shakir Hussain Shakir, Zahoor Ahmad Dhareja, Mukhtar Zafar, Muhammad Amin, Waseem Mumtaz, Syed Karamt Gardaizi, Zameer Hashmi, Rizwana Tabassum and Arshad Abbas Zaki.

Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) Deputy Director Major Assad Mahmood Khan, Radio Pakistan Station Director Asif Khan Khaitran and Information Officer Muhammad Asghar Khan were also present at the occasion.

Later, Governor Rajwana visited the Multan bench of the Lahore High Court and met lawyers’ delegations at the bar room. He assured the lawyers that he would visit the bar whenever he was in the city.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 11^th, 2015.