PESHAWAR: The Pakistan Academy of Letters has awarded the seasoned politician, intellectual and poet Afrasiab Khattak with ‘Khushal Khan Khattak Award’ for his poetry collection titled ‘Nawey Taigh’ (fresh foliage).

It has also conferred upon research scholar Dr Qazi Hanifullah the ‘Ajmal Khattak Award’ for his Pashto prose ‘Pakhto Shairai Ke Da Sciencee Shaoor Izhar’ (the re-election of scientific consciousness in Pashto poetry).

The Kamal-i-Fan (life achievement) award went to noted writer Munir Ahmad Badini from Balochistan.

Awards and cash were announced for the best poetry and prose books written in Urdu, Punjabi, Sindhi, Pashto, Balochi, Hindko, Seraiki and English.

Senior Hindko songwriter Saeed Gilani received ‘Ahmed Ali Sayein Award’ for poetry for his poetry collection titled ‘Peepal Watry’, and Hindko prose ‘Khatir Ghaznavi Award’ was given to noted Hindko writer Nazeer Bhatti for his book ‘Shaam Alam’.

KP Pashto literary circles and fans of Afrasiab Khattak have congratulated him on receiving the award, and also appreciated the PAL nomination committee for awarding Mr Khattak.

The PAL announced national literary awards for the poets and writers across the country for the year 2018. According to a press release, the poets and writers would be given a cash award Rs200,000 each.

Talking to Dawn, Afrasiab Khattak said he had a literary background and loved literature since his early age. He said he had begun composing poems in Pashto and also used to do extensive study on variety of subjects. He maintained that unfortunately his political engagements did not let him to continue with his literary pursuits.

“Despite my political engagements I remained in close contact with Pashto literary stalwarts, including Ghani Khan, Qalandar Momand, Dost Mohammad Kamil, Ajmal Khattak and other intellectuals and scholars. Most of my poetry works were wasted during police raids,” he said.

Meanwhile, noted literary figure Prof Abaseen Yousafzai said works of literati should be recognised at national level irrespective of cast and creed. He said awarding poets like Afrasiab Khattak would encourage young poets and writers to contribute more to the literary world.

Published in Dawn, June 17th, 2020