The president was expressing his views during 9th Steering Committee for Federal Government Artists’ Welfare Fund meeting which was held under his chairmanship at the Aiwan-e-Sadr to consider the names of 275 artists belonging to the four provinces for financial assistance, a press release said.

The president said the basic purpose of this fund was to provide financial support to the needy artists. In this regard, he underlined the need of accurate database to ensure disbursement of funds in a transparent manner.

The president thanked all the members of the committee and philanthropists for their participation and efforts in this noble cause of resolving the issues of the artists.

Private members of the committee Dr. Ali Jan, Misbah Khalid, Khalid Anam, Adeel Hashmi, Atif Aslam, Roshan Khursheed Bharucha, and Abaseen Yousafzai were also present.

The Federal Government Artists’ Welfare Fund was created in 2011 with a seed money of Rs 200 million.

Objectives of the creation of this fund were to provide financial help to the artists or their families in the following circumstances:- (a) when an artist is in impoverished condition and needs financial support, b) during the period, when an artist is inactive due to old age, health condition, or otherwise handicapped from accident or disease, c) after the death of an artist, financial support to his/her family.