Information Ministry has little to offer to needy artistes

JournalismPakistan.com | Published 10 years ago

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Culture and Art Relief Fund lacks needed resources to help deserving and needy artistes as big financial institutions seem least interested in making contributions to the fund.

Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has disclosed that it would be able to help only 66 artistes this year out of 169 who are in dire need of financial assistance to meet their daily expenditures.

The ministry wrote separate letters to around 15 leading financial institutions last year seeking their assistance for the artistes but so far not even a single organization has responded to the request.

In a recent meeting on the fund, it was revealed the ministry could help only 117 artistes last year for nine months. “The ministry has been paying five thousand rupees per month to the needy artistes but the funds dried up after nine months,” a participant of the meeting told JournalismPakistan.com.

He said the ministry has received recommendations for financial assistance of nine artistes from Punjab, 46 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, six from Balochistan, eight from Kashmir, seven from Gilgit-Baltistan, 16 from Sindh, 57 from Pakistan National Council of Arts, and 20 from Lok Virsa.

“Unfortunately, the ministry has funds to help out just 66 artistes for the current year,” he said, urging the philanthropists and charities to come forward to share burden of the needy artistes.