PESHAWAR: The local artists here on Monday held a protest demonstration against the provincial government for not paying monthly stipend to them for the last more than five months.

The protesting artists threatened to stage a sit-in outside the residence of Prime Minister Imran Khan in Banigala if government did not release the funds at the earliest.

They were holding banners and placards inscribed with their demands for release of funds to disburse the honorarium among artists and poets.

Senior artists including Zulfiqar Qureshi, Ahmed Sajjad, Zar Mohammad, Ishrat Abbas and Samad Shah said on the occasion that the previous provincial government had approved endowment fund for them and started paying Rs30, 000 monthly stipend to each of the 500 registered artists including actors, singers, composers, poets, film and drama writers and directors but the stipend had been pending for more than five months owing to unknown reasons.

The protesters said that they had dedicated their lives to art and promotion of culture but they were treated like beggars. They said that the families of most of the senior artists were facing starvation owing to the bad attitude of the directorate of culture.

The protesters said that some of the actors and actresses moved court against the committee formed by the provincial government to select genuine artists for the stipend. They said that the court delivered a verdict and chief minister also ordered early payment to artists but culture department was yet to implement the order of the court.

Senior artist Iffat Siddiqui said on the occasion that government was bound to issue cheques to the artists as per order of Peshawar High Court. However, she said that several artists, who retired from different government departments, were not entitled to the stipend as it was meant for the poor artists.

Nadia, another artist, demanded of the chief minister to direct the relevant officials of the directorate of culture to issue cheques to them forthwith.

Published in Dawn, December 11th, 2018