Moot calls for promotion of mother tongue

ISLAMABAD:

There is a need to promote our languages and it is our duty to save our language as few have almost died and have a few speakers left, said National Language Promotion Department (NLPD) Director General Dr Rauf Parekh.

He was speaking at a one-day conference on “Significance of Mother Tongue in a Multilingual Society” held at the National University of Modern Languages (NUML) on Monday. The university’s Urdu Department had organised the moot.

“Around 76 languages are spoken in Pakistan, and they must be called Pakistani languages rather than regional languages,” he said, adding that Article 251 of the constitution gives the right to provinces to adopt their own language as provincial language.

NUML Director General Brig Syed Nadir Ali, keynote speaker, writer and novelist Hafeez Khan, Dean Pro Rector Academics Dr Safeer Awan, Dean faculty of languages Dr Jamil Asghar Jami, HoDs, faculty members and a large number of students attended the event.

NUML Director General Syed Nadir Ali said that there must be no shame in speaking our own language especially with children and this is the only way to keep any mother tongue alive.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 22^nd, 2022.