PESHAWAR: Scores of television and radio artists have threatened to stage a sit-in if provincial government fails to provide them with monthly stipends.

Addressing a news conference at Peshawar Press Club on Monday, they set 72 hours deadline for the government to include their names in the list of those artists, who were selected for monthly stipend.

They alleged that officials of culture department neglected them while selecting artists, poets and singers for award of monthly stipend.

They said that they had been in the field for many years but culture department ignored their applications for the grant of stipends.

Mian Waseemuddin, Dr Niaz Ali, Zameer Bacha, Qazi Jamal, Sidra, Nasir Khan and Saeeda were present during the press conference. They said that they had timely submitted applications to the directorate of culture but they were not considered for the monthly stipend of Rs30,000 each.

Set 72 hours deadline for acceptance of demand

Talking on behalf of the artists, Mian Waseem said that the scrutiny committee didn’t short list the applicants in a judicious manner. Seasoned artists were ignored in award of stipends, he added.

Appreciating the provincial government and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairman Imran Khan for encouraging artists of the province, he said it was a commendable step but the culture director attempted to foil it by adopting step-motherly treatment with many of the artists.

Mian Waseem demanded of the government to probe the matter and award punishment to all those, who were trying to foil its plan for welfare of the artists.

Speaking on the occasion, Nasir Khan said that about 54 artists, singers and poets were neglected. The list of their names could be provided to the government, he added.

“Senior artist Najeebullah Anjum was also member of the scrutiny committee. We complained to him but he informed us that our applications were not included in the files. It means that someone has intentionally dropped our names,” he said. Zameer Bacha said on the occasion that of the 500 people, who got stipends, at least 50 per cent were not entitled for stipend. He said that they had enough information to prove that the culture director was biased.

“The culture director should return our applications if we are not entitled for the stipends,” he said.

Published in Dawn, February 16th, 2016