LAHORE: The Punjab Institute of Language, Art and Culture (Pilac) has been striving hard to hold a meeting of its board of governors (BoG), which has not been held in the last 14 years.

The last meeting of the board was held in 2006, chaired by the then Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi. Since then, the chief ministers of Punjab have ignored Pilac, the principal institute in the province, dedicated to Punjabi language, art and cultural heritage. The duration includes two terms of Shahbaz Sharif, himself a Punjabi speaking leader, while two years of the term of Chief Minister Usman Buzdar who belongs to the Seraiki region. Many requests for the meeting have also been sent to CM Buzdar but his office hasn’t yet given any date for it.

The CM is the chairperson of the BoG and every BoG requires two MPAS from the Treasury and one from the Opposition while in most of the cases, their availability is often difficult, sources in Pilac say. There are five non-official members of the board, as well.

Since the chairperson of the BoG is the chief minister, it has always been inconvenient for institute to hold its meeting because of several other occupations of the head of the province.

Circles concerned propose CS instead of CM as BoG chairperson

If a meeting of BoG would not be held this year too, the existing BoG would expire on Dec 7 for it was constituted for two years.

There have been proposals by the circles concerned that Pilac BoG’s chairperson should be the chief secretary (CS) instead of the chief minister so that availability of the chairperson could be ensured for regular meetings.

Pilac Director General Dr Sughra Sadaf, when asked about the matter, told Dawn: “I am hopeful that meeting of BoG will be held soon as a request has been sent to Chief Minister Usman Buzdar through the office of secretary Culture and Information”.

Secretary Information and Culture Raja Jahangir says CM Buzdar has been informed about the pending meeting and he would soon chair it.

The sources, despite being hopeful about the meeting, expressed apprehensions about it, keeping in view the busy schedule of the Chief Minister Usman Buzdar.

They say proposed meeting agenda will include administrative and service issues to create new seats for the art gallery, museum and the folk studio. It will be in the larger interest of Pilac if the constitutional issues of BoG are made easier as in every BoG, three MPAs are required who are also mostly unavailable.

In the absence of BoG’s meeting pending for the last 14 years, an executive committee has been formed Pilac.

It is headed by Pilac’s director general and the members include Muhammad Awon Hameed, the parliamentary secretary for literacy, Khadija Umar, an MPA, additional secretary Information and Culture, additional secretary Education Department, additional secretary Finance, Lahore Arts Council Executive Director Saman Rai and Punjab Council of the Arts Executive Director Rizwan Shareef.

Published in Dawn, September 25th, 2020