ISLAMABAD: National History and Literary Heritage (NHLH) Advisor to Prime Minister Irfan Siddiqui on Tuesday said that all formalities to initiate the conferment of the “Intezar Hussain award” to the best writer of Urdu fiction every year have been completed.
Presiding over the meeting at the NHLH division premises, Irfan Siddiqui remarked that the promotion of literature can help to wipe out the menaces of extremism, violence and hatred from the society.
He said that a society which did not give importance to the promotion of literature ultimately finds itself deprived of fundamental human values of peace, love and brotherhood.
Siddiqui said that Intizar Hussain has made immense contributions to Urdu literature and that his work is liked and appreciated both within Pakistan and internationally.
He added that late Intizar Hussain provided a new dimension to short stories and novels written in Urdu and that his work could easily be compared to that of international writers.
The meeting decided to initiate the process of conferment of Intizar Hussain Award without any delay. A sum equaling Rs1,000,000 has been allocated to be distributed to writers of two categories – Urdu novel or novelette and short stories.
It was decided that the first Intizar Hussain award would be given for books published in the year 2016.
The terms and conditions for conferring Intizar Hussain Award were also formulated during the meeting.
NHLH Federal Secretary Engineer Aamir Hasan, Joint Secretary Syed Junaid Akhlaq, National Language Promotion Department Chairman Iftikhar Arif, Pakistan Academy of Letters Chairman Dr Qasim Bughio and other relevant officials of the division were also present during the meeting.