Shift knowledge to national language, says Mamnoon

Calls for promoting national, regional languages, preserving local dialects

ISLAMABAD: President Mamnoon Hussain said on Tuesday that Pakistan should learn from the experience of other countries for shifting of modern knowledge to the national language.

He was speaking during the presentation of ‘Recommendations Report of International Dialogue ‘to promote Urdu language organised under auspices of the Air University at the Aiwan-e-Sadr, Islamabad on Tuesday.

Mamnoon said promoting the national language is a great national duty.

The president called for highlighting the significance of all local languages spoken in the country to prevent them from becoming archaic.

He said that all developed nations have achieved progress by promoting their national language. Therefore all institutions concerned should work for the promotion of national language by benefiting from international experiences.

Secretary National History and Literary Heritage Division Amir Hasan, Chairman National Language Promotion Department Iftikhar Arif, Dean of Social Sciences of the Air University Dr Wasima Shahzad and others were also present on the occasion.

The president said that research and development work to promote Urdu in line with modern principles of linguistics should have started long before.

He praised the recommendations and dialogue by Air University for the preparation of recommendations. He also stated that attaining development in present era is not possible without achieving expertise in science and information technology but majority of the people have no access to modern education due to lack of understanding of the foreign language.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 10^th, 2017.