Writers and poets of the country have urged the government to keep Pakistan Academy of Letters (PAL) under the Cabinet Division, with Prime Minister of Pakistan directly supervising the academy so that the honour of Pakistani writers and poets is upheld.
This was demanded in a joint press conference addressed by Akademy Bachao Tehreek's Chairman, Aftab Iqbal Shamim, Imdad Akaash, President Fareeda Hafeez, Co-ordinator Ahmed Raza Raja, Secretary Iqbal Hussain Ifkar, Joint Secretary Syed Mazhar Masood and Press Secretary Sheryar Khan here on Friday. They said that after the establishment of new ministries, PAL was put under the Ministry of National Heritage and Integration, while another institution (National Book Foundation) dealing with printing of books, was still working under Cabinet Division. "This step has not been received favourably by the writer's community. They think that this is the first step towards demolition of PAL. In other countries institutions of this kind are personally supervised by the heads of State. Rulers and politicians of civilised countries understand that the writers and poets are the brain of a society while in our country men of letters and literary organisations are being ignored by the governments," they added.
They further said that currently PAL was in such a precarious condition that honorarium of needy writers and their families had been stopped for last four months. "Emergency financial assistance is also not being provided. Writers from all over the country are agitating against this state of the affairs," they added.
The writers and poets of the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi have started a movement to bring PAL back under the control of Cabinet Division, vowing that the movement would continue till the achievement of the goal. They requested the president and the prime minister to save this prestigious national institution and issue orders to put it under Cabinet Division, adding that if this issue was not taken seriously then new projects of writers welfare would not be possible to launch.