Islamabad - The National History and Literary Heritage has finalized modalities to confer “Intizar Hussain Award” to the best writer every year, Adviser to Prime Minister on National Heritage Irfan Siddiqui said on Tuesday.

“The promotion of literature can help wipe out the menace of extremism, violence, and hatred from the society,” Siddiqui said while presiding over a meeting held at the NH&LH division.

The meeting was arranged to finalize the modalities for conferring ‘Intezar Hussain Award’, an initiative of the division to acknowledge the literary contributions of the legendary fiction writer, late Hussain.

“The society which lacks focus on the promotion of literature ultimately remains deprived of human values of peace, love and mutual fraternity,” Siddiqui said.

He said that the late Hussain rendered huge contribution to Urdu literature and his creative work was appreciated at national as well as international levels.

“Intizar Hussain gave a new dimension to Urdu fiction and novel and his creative writings can be compared with the works of international writers,” he said.

An amount Rs1 million has been allocated for the ‘Intizar Hussain Award’ which would be distributed among writers of two categories.

The first category has been allocated for novel or novelette and the second category for fiction writing in Urdu.

It was decided that the award will be given for the creative works published for the first time and the first Intizar Hussain Award will be given for the books published in the year 2016.

The terms and conditions for the award were also formulated during the meeting.

The meeting was also attended by Federal Secretary for NH&LH Aamir Hasan, Joint Secretary Syed Junaid Akhlaq, National Language Promotion Department Chairman Iftikhar Arif, Pakistan Academy of Letters Chairman Dr Qasim Bughio and others.