On Monday, renowned Sindhi fiction writer and columnist Amar Jaleel was named as the recipient of Kamal-i-Fun Award 2016 by a jury selected by the Pakistan Academy of Letters (PAL).
Kamal-i-Fun is the highest award in the field of literature.
Mr Jaleel was born on November 8, 1936, in Sukkur and has written a number of books. He has also received many awards, including Pride of Performance (Pakistan) and Akhal Bharat Sindhi Sahat Sabha National Award of India.
The 11-member jury held a meeting at PAL and took almost two hours before finally deciding on the name of the winner.
Zahida Hina, the head of the jury, told a press conference that there were a number of names but the jury unanimously decided to give the award to Mr Jaleel.
PAL Chairman Dr Qasim Bughio told the media-persons that the jury consisted of literary personalities such as Asghar Nadeem Syed, Madad Ali Sindhi, Mohammad Ayub Baloch, Dr Abdul Razaq Sabir, Dr Nazeer Tabassum, Hafeez Khan, Dr Inamul Haq Javed, Dr Aslam Taseer, Mohammad Afsar Sajid and Dr Tahseen Firaqui.
He also announced the names of the recipients of the National Literary Award for the year 2016 on the best literary books written during the year in Urdu and other languages.
An amount of Rs200,000 will also be given to each of the recipients.
