ISLAMABAD, Oct 17: The Pakistan Academy of Letters (PAL) is all set to become an autonomous body through an act of parliament.

Briefing mediapersons on Friday, Chairman PAL Iftikhar Arif said a summary submitted by the ministry of education in this regard had already been approved by the cabinet. He said in pursuance of the advice by the law and justice division, a draft bill had been prepared and would shortly be submitted to the cabinet division for further process.

He said PAL had plans to construct regional offices in the four provincial capitals with provision of conference halls, guest houses and book shops. He said all the four provincial governments had been requested to provide land on official rates for the purpose. The government of NWFP has allotted two kanals to PAL in Hayatabad, Peshawar. The allotment from government of Balochistan is expected shortly, while the remaining two provinces have not yet responded. The PC-I for construction of an office building in Peshawar will be submitted after meeting the requisite formalities.

He said a request had been made to the education ministry to allow PAL to submit PC-1 to set up printing facilities in the academy.

He said PAL had sufficient space in its existing building to set up printing facilities. He said the estimated cost of the project was Rs13 million.

Recounting his achievements as chairman PAL, he said he initiated the important project of ‘Makers of Pakistani literatures’ under which more than 81 biographical introductory works have so far been published on the life and works of prominent literary figures. He said work on another 63 books was underway.The academy also launched the project of “Pocket size books”.

In the first phase, books like “Qaseeda Burda Shareef” and “Collective poetry of Bulleh Shah” have been published. In this series, books on Khushal Khan Khattak, Rehman Baba, Shah Abdul Lateef Bhittai, Jam Durrak, Sachal Sarmast, Mast Tawakali, Mian Mohammad Bakhsh, Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib, Khwaja Fareed, Waris Shah and Allama Mohammad Iqbal were in the pipeline.

He said the academy had arranged translations of 40 American poets in Urdu. Simultaneously, its American counterpart, the National Endowment Funds, Washington, was arranging translations of works of 40 Pakistani poets for publication. He said national awards were given to the authors of best books in all major Pakistani languages and English. In addition, a special cash award is also given to the best book on Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai and sufism.

The award money was enhanced from Rs25,000 to Rs100,000 in July 2008. Another award for best books in Hindko was also introduced in July 2007.