Funds sought for Hindko Academy in KP budget

PESHAWAR: A literary and cultural organization, Gandhara Hindko Board, has expressed concern over non-allocation of funds for meeting the running expenditures of the Hindko Academy and asked Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Chief Minister Mahmood Khan and Acting Governor Mushtaq Ahmed Ghani to ensure proper financial resources for the research body being run on a public-private partnership basis.

A press release issued by the board deplored the non-inclusion of Hindko Academy Phase-III Scheme in the annual development plan (ADP) of the KP government’s recently-unveiled budget and instead apportioning only Rs 10million for the construction of the academy’s building.

The communication said Hindko is the sixth main regional language of the country and second widely spoken language of KP which has always been ignored by the successive governments.

It recalled that the dream of having a Hindko Academy in KP came true in 2015 — almost 68 years after the Independence of the country — when the previous Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government in the province set up the research body under the public-private partnership.

The communication said the Gandhara Hindko Board has proved to be a good implementing partner of the Higher Education Department of the KP government in running the academy efficiently and its working has won acknowledgement by the relevant department and people in general.

The board said the Hindko Academy has established itself to be a state-of-the-art academy by all accounts in a short span of seven years of its existence in Phase-I and-II by not only working for the Hindko promotion but also other sister languages spoken in KP and other parts of the country.

It said the academy has published 500 books and publications so far in 11 languages that include Hindko, Urdu, English, Pashto, Khowar, Kohistani, Gojri, Seraiki, Punjabi, Sindhi and Barhui which is no small achievement.

The communication said the academy, apart from carrying out organized research and bringing out publications, has arranged seven international and nine regional literary-cum-cultural conferences to promote Pakistani languages and literatures associated with them.

It said the efforts of the academy have been duly acknowledged officially by the present Higher Education Department Secretary Daud Khan and his two predecessors, Arshad Khan and Syed Zaffar Ali Shah, adding that the Pakistan Academy of Letters has expressed appreciation for the academy’s performance as well.

The board requested Chief Minister Mahmood Khan, Acting Governor Mushtaq Ahmed Ghani and Minister for Higher Education Kamran Bangash to take notice of, what it said is, an injustice with the Hindko language and allocate proper funds as sought by the Gandhara Hindko Academy for its Phase-III.