ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Academy of Letters (PAL) has finalised arrangements to announce the names of winners of Pakistan’s top most literary awards - Kamal-i-Fun and National Literary awards - for the year 2021.

Kamal-i-Fun Award which is also called “Life Time Achievement Award” will be announced at 3:30pm on Thursday in the conference hall of PAL at H-8/1.

Last year, Kamal-i-Fun Award 2020 was jointly won by renowned writer and poet Mustansar Hussain Tarar and Ashoo Lala Faqeer.

According to an official of PAL, on Thursday a jury will sit at PAL to decide the names of the winners of both the awards before their announcement the same day.

Life Time Achievement Award and National Literary Awards are the most important awards of the country on literary services and books. Life Time Achievement Award is given for lifelong literary services of the writer.

The recipient of this award is also given Rs1 million. The award will be decided by a panel of eminent and respectful writers and intellectuals throughout the country, a statement issued by PAL stated.

On this occasion, the “National Literary Awards” will also be announced on best books published during the year 2021. For Urdu poetry “Dr Allama Mohammad Iqbal Award”, for Urdu research and critic literature “Baba-i-Urdu Dr Molvi Abdul Haq Award”, for Urdu creative literature “Saadat Hassan Manto Award”, for Sindhi poetry “Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai Award”, for Sindhi prose “Mirza Qaleech Baig Award”, for Pashto poetry “Khushall Khan Khattak Award” and for Pashto prose “Mohammad Ajmal Khan Khattak Award” will be given.

Similarly, for Punjabi poetry “Syed Waris Shah Award”, for Punjabi prose “Afzal Ahsan Randhawa Award”, for Balochi poetry “Mast Tawakali Award”, for Balochi prose “Syed Zahoor Shah Hashmi Award ”, for Seraiki poetry “Khawaja Ghulam Farid Award”, for Seraiki prose “Dr Mehar Abdul Haq Award”, for Brahvi poetry “Taj Mohammad Tajal Award”, for Brahvi prose “Ghulam Nabi Rahi Award”, for Hindko poetry “Saieen Ahmed Ali Award”, for Hindko prose “Khatir Ghazanvi Award”, for English poetry “Daud Kamal Award”, for English prose “Pitras Bukhari Award” and for best translation works “Mohammad Hassan Askari Award” will be announced. The amount of each of these awards is Rs200,000.

Published in Dawn, October 18th, 2023