KARACHI, Nov 20: The National Bank of Pakistan has announced institution of eight “NBP Awards for Excellence in Literature” for the promotion of literature in the country.

Giving details of the awards at a press conference held here on Tuesday, Sindh Ombudsman Yousuf Jamal said four out of the eight awards will be for best contribution to poetry, fiction (prose), scholarly literature (including literary criticism), satire and humour in national language and would carry a Rs0.5 million prize money each.

The other four awards carrying a Rs0.3 million prize money each would be for the best book in regional languages — Punjabi, Pushto, Sindhi and Balochi.

Mr Jamal, who was the chief guest at the function, said that the names of the winners of the first recipient of awards would be announced on March 7, 2008. He said the books eligible for entry in the competition should have been published during 2006 and 2007.