PAL extends honorarium to writers facing hardships

Islamabad:Pakistan Academy of Letters (PAL) has extended its facilities to the writers’ community with honorarium to upgrade their living standard and help them to face hardships of life.

PAL was paying monthly honorarium of Rs31,200 to indigent writers, poets and bereaved families of deceased writers to 500 families regularly, an official told APP. Beside monthly stipends, PAL assistance was also extended to ailing writers for medical treatment and to their bereaved families on the recommendations of local literary organisations, he said.

Insurance scheme was also being provided by PAL to writers and poets and was planning to cover 2,000 writers and poets in the first phase, the official said adding that over 700 writers had been covered under the scheme so far. He said PAL was maintaining a ten-room Writer’s House on self-finance basis for providing accommodation to writers and scholars, visiting the federal capital from across the country at nominal rates.