PNCA board of governors reconstituted

Islamabad: The National History and Literary Heritage Division has reconstituted the Board of Governors of the Pakistan National Council of the Arts.

The development comes after the approval of Federal Minister for National History and Literary Heritage Shafqat Mehmood in line with the PNCA Act, 1973 (LIX of 1973).

The division had got the administrative control of the PNCA in August 2019. According to officials, the move is meant to ensure good governance in the institution through diversity, representation of all provinces, and presence of experienced and young individuals from all fields of arts and culture.

The minister will head the board, which will have 20 specialists of arts and culture as members and nine ex-officio members. The members include playwright and Ajoka Theatre Group director Shahid Mehmood Nadeem (Punjab), classical and semi classical singer Tina Sani (Sindh), rabab player Farhan Bogra (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), veteran TV artist and director Samina Peerzada (Punjab), actor, director and producer Sarmad Sultan Khosat (Punjab), TV and film artist Mehwish Hayat (Sindh), painter Mansoor Rahi (Islamabad), painter Rashid Rana, painter and Satrang Gallery founder Asma Rahid Khan (Islamabad), painter and sculptor Akram Dost Baluch (Balochistan), Gul Ahmed Textile Mills non-executive director Ziad Bashir (Sindh), fashion designer Deepak Perwani (Sindh), poet and playwright Amjad Islam Amjad (Punjab), Lahore Arts Council chairperson Moneeza Hashmi (Punjab), Karachi Arts Council president Muhammad Ahmed Shah (Sindh), founding member of several Baltistan-based cultural forums Taqi Akhundzada (Gilgit-Baltistan), former director of the Cultural Directorate of Balochistan Abdullah Baloch (Balochistan), furniture designer Ghazala Rehman (Punjab), architect, painter and poet Naeem Pasha (Punjab) and TV artist and Asian Study Group president Parveen Malik (Islamabad).

The ex-officio members include secretary and the joint secretary of the Heritage Division, the director general of PNCA, MD and PTV, director general (archaeology), head of PBS and a representative of the Foreign Office and Finance Ministry each.