Amraiz Khan
Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar has said that welfare of the writers and poets is among top priorities of the government and steps are being taken to facilitate them.
He was speaking after inaugurating a tea shop, Punjab’s first literary museum and adabi baithak at Majlis-e-Taraqqi-e-Adab (Board for Advancement of Literature) and laying the foundation stone of the e-library block here on Tuesday.
He took a keen interest in items belonging to Allama Iqbal, poets and intellectuals at Lahore literary museum while viewing a place for storytelling.
Minister Culture Khayal Ahmad Kastro, Special Assistant to CM Hasaan Khawar, director Mansoor Afaq, DC and literati were also present.
While talking to the literati, Usman Buzdar said several steps have been taken for the welfare of writers and poets adding that membership cards were being issued to writers and poets by the Board for Advancement of Literature to provide financial assistance through the writers’ welfare fund.
They would be able to get books at subsidized rates besides accessing the antique books of the Board for Advancement of Literature, he maintained. They would also be able to benefit from any of the writers’ welfare schemes, he repeated.
The CM said UNESCO has declared Lahore a city of literature and a Lahore literary park was being established in the city.
Meanwhile, awards would be given to selected poetry and prose books under the aegis of Board for Advancement of Literature every year; he said and stated that awards would also be given to best prose, poem and ghazal.
He said the government was going to launch the first Urdu e-reader comprising of ten thousand books, initially, to promote the Urdu language.
Similarly, a library of manuscripts would be established where five copies of each document would be preserved which can also be accessed online, he added. The CM was presented with a souvenir. Earlier, Secretary Information and Culture briefed the chief minister.
Meanwhile, on the direction of Chief Minister Punjab Sardar Usman Buzdar, a letter has been sent to chief secretary Punjab for reciting Darood Sharif (Darood-e-Ibrahimi) before the national anthem and after the recitation of the Holy Quran in schools’ assemblies.
In this regard, the CM said Durood Sharif has immense virtues. It is an honour for every Muslim to offer Darood Sharif in the honour of Rehmat-ul-Ulameen Hazrat Muhammad (PBUH), he added.
Furthermore, Chief Minister Punjab Sardar Usman Buzdar has expressed a deep sense of sorrow over the loss of lives in a road accident near Muzaffargarh and extended sympathies to the bereaved heirs.
The CM has asked the administration to provide the best medical treatment to the injured and also to submit a report about the accident.
