Faiz Ahmed Faiz international conference will be held in 3rd week of May, 2011. Pakistan Academy of Letters (PAL) also plans to set up a special award "Faiz Ahmed Faiz Award" on any one book of poetry in all Pakistani languages including English. The amount of Rs 1,00,000 will be presented to award winner.
These views were expressed by Fakhar Zaman, Chairman PAL, while giving a press briefing about PAL's activities of the year regarding celebrations of Faiz Ahmad Faiz Year 2011 and PAL's new publishing projects on Faiz Ahmed Faiz. He said that PAL has announced the year 2011 as "Faiz Ahmad Faiz Year and regarding the celebration of Faiz Ahmad Faiz's 100th birthday, PAL has organised a series of nation-wide seminar on Faiz Ahmed Faiz.
Scholars from Holland, Germany, Italy, SAARC countries, France, UK, Russia, Uzbekistan, Canada, USA, Denmark, India, Czechoslovakia, Bangladesh and others will be invited in the conference to present their papers on Faiz Ahmed Faiz. PAL's provincial branches will also organise special programmes and seminars on Faiz Ahmed Faiz. He said that PAL also plans to prepare a documentary film on life of Faiz Ahmed Faiz, he added.
Zaman further said that PAL is also planning to organise an exhibition of paintings made in special reference with Faiz Ahmed Faiz's poetry. All renowned painters of Pakistan will be requested to participate in the exhibition, which will be held in Islamabad and all provinces.
Faiz Ahmed Faiz Auditorium is under construction within the premises of PAL. It is requested to the government to provide more funds to accelerate the process of construction. Government has already agreed to provide the remaining budget Rs 20 million for the project, he said, adding that it is the first auditorium in Pakistan, which is associated with the name of Faiz Ahmed Faiz.
The chairman said that if funds were released on time it is hoped that the project would be completed by June 2011. The project was supposed to be completed in the same year. However, due to the unavailability of funds the construction work has been stopped since February 2009. It is feared that any further delay in the process of construction would lead the incomplete structure of auditorium to serious deterioration the constant rising cost of construction material may make it unavoidable to revise PC-I, he added.
The chairman said that a book containing reviews of critical writings regarding life and work of Faiz Ahmed Fiaz is also in process. PAL will also publish a book of Faiz Ahmed Faiz containing memoirs of friends with whom he spent some time during his stay in Canada.
Under another publication project, PAL will publish reports of conferences and seminars on Faiz Ahmed Faiz to be held under the auspicious of PAL. Writings and poetry including books on Faiz Ahmed Faiz will be translated into all Pakistani languages, he added.