LAHORE, June 13: The World Punjabi Congress has decided to send a delegation of Punjabi writers to India in August this year to participate in the World Punjabi Conference at Chandigarh.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the advisory council of the congress held here on Friday with Fakhar Zaman in the chair.

The council demanded inclusion of original Punjabi writings in the textbooks instead of translations; nomination of three Punjab writers on the Punjab Writers Welfare Board; giving Punjabi writers a chance to write for the television and naming of the roads and streets after the Punjabi ‘sufi’ poets.

The council also announced award of life fellowships to the following 48 writers, poets and scholars of different languages:

Sharif Kunjahi, Munir Niazi, Shafqat Tanvir Mirza, Ahmad Bashir, Zafar Iqbal, Khwaja M.Masud, Dr Tariq Rahman, Dr Ahmad Hasan Dani, Shafi Aqil, Mahmood Sham, Anwar Ali, Shahzad Ahmad, Syed Afzal Haider, Iqbal Salahuddin, Hafiz Taib, Sharif Sabir, Abdul Ghafoor Qureshi, Prof Sanaullah Qureshi, Husain Naqi, Raja Rasalu, M Mansha Yad, Dr Laeeq Babri, Dr Mehdi Hasan, Dr Anwaar Ahmad, Dr Alamgir Hashmi, Dr Aslam Syed, Dr Mrs Kaniz Yousaf, Dr Kanwal Feroz, Hayat Ahmad Khan, Hamid Akhtar, Aziz Mazhar, Mrs Farkhanda Lodhi, Dr Wazir Agha, Mrs Riffat Qadir Hasan, Anwar Beg Awan, Dr Sabir Afaqi, Dr Abdullah Jamal Din, Dr NB Baloch, Sobhogian Chandni, Saleem Raz, Mokhtar Ali Nayyar, Dr Mohammed Ali Siddiqi, Prof Bahadar Khan, Prof Nadir Kamrani, Dr Mubarik Ali, Salim Shahid and Mrs Fahmida Husain.