PESHAWAR: The Gandhara Hindko Academy, Peshawar, is facing a lack of funding issue as the special grant of Rs 2 million, sanctioned by Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur months ago, has not been released by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Higher Education Department for unknown reasons.
Hindko writers and poets expressed concern over the non-availability of financial resources for the academy during a meeting convened at the Gandhara Hindko Board’s central office on Wednesday. They feared that the academy’s research activities would suffer if the issue was not addressed.
The writers pointed out that Hindko is the second main language in KP and the sixth widely spoken regional language in the country.“The demand for establishing a Hindko Academy was first made in 1962, but it remained unfulfilled for a long time. The PTI [Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf] government respected the aspirations of the Hindkowan population and set up the Gandhara Hindko Academy under a public-private partnership in April 2015,” recalled Adnan Mahmood Gul, senior vice-chairman of the Gandhara Hindko Board, which runs the academy in partnership with the KP Higher Education Department.
Muhammad Ziauddin, the general secretary of the board, recalled that in the last nine years, the academy has performed remarkably, not only by publishing books and other materials in the Hindko but also in other fellow languages of KP such as Saraiki, Khowar, Kohistani, Torwali, etc along with organizing literary and cultural events in various parts of the province.
“The number of books and publications brought out by the Hindko Academy stands at 550. The academy’s work has been acknowledged at the official level,” he said, mentioning the Pakistan Academy of Letters and other organizations to support his point.
The writers noted that despite these achievements, the Hindko Academy Project was dropped from the Annual Development Plan last year, which was bound to affect the research body’s activities.
The board office-bearers said Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur, after assuming office this year, took notice of the issue and sanctioned a special grant of Rs 2 million for the academy, with a promise to allocate more funds as well. However, they added, the KP Higher Education Department has not released the amount even after several months, creating concerns among the literati.
They appealed to the chief minister to direct the KP Higher Education Department to release the special grant to the academy as soon as possible so that its research activities are not disrupted.
