PESHAWAR: The members of a newly formed literary organisation have pledged to work for promotion of Pashto language, literature and culture in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The organisation has been named as Qaami Adabi Majlis (QAM). The eight-member cabinet of QAM was administered oath in Peshawar Press Club on Sunday. Poets, writers and researchers from across the province participated in the event.

Patron-in-chief of QAM Idrees Asr administered oath to the cabinet members namely Ismail Gohar, Prof Aseer Mangal, Sayeda Hasina Gul, Prof Zubair Hasrat, Prof Mohammad Ali Dinakhel, Amjad Ali Khadim, Akhtar Hayat Qamar and Ayazullah Tarakzai.

Addressing on the occasion, Ismail Gohar said that formation of a literary organisation for promotion of Pashto language, literature and culture was long due at provincial level.

He said that QAM would appoint one senior writer in every district as coordinator so that a comprehensive work plan could be framed to pinpoint different areas of language, literature and culture and also to coordinate efforts of literati, scholars, linguistics and artists.

Idrees Asr said on the occasion that several literary and cultural organisations had been working in the province to achieve the same objectives. He said that QAM would encourage all those literati and artists and would help writers to bring out their books. He added that it would also motivate them to hold regular literary and cultural events at district level.

Prof Zubair Hasrat said that issues related to Pashto script, quality of research and literary criticism, literary journalism, Pashto teaching methodologies and digitisation and several other aspects required coordinated efforts.

He said that QAM would arrange seminars, workshops and debates on all important literary and cultural issues and would also frame recommendations for improvement and implementation to be put forward to the relevant authorities.

Gulzar Jalal Yousafzai, Gul Mohammad Betab, Shahab Aziz Arman and Rasheed Ahmed also spoke at the event.

Later, the participants prayed for the departed soul of noted Pashto fiction writer Tahir Afridi and expressed sympathy with the bereaved family.

Published in Dawn, June 7th, 2021