Punjabi congress: ‘Let all Pakistani tongues be national languages’

Govt asked to make teaching of Punjabi language mandatory at primary schools .

LAHORE:

All languages spoken in the country should be declared as national languages and major public universities in the four provinces be made to teach these languages, rather than just the ones spoken in their province, says the Lahore Declaration issued at the conclusion of a day-long conference on Punjab, Punjabi and Punjabi Language and Culture on Friday.

The declaration issued by the World Punjabi Congress asks the provincial government to make Punjabi language a compulsory subject at primary school level.

It seeks the establishment of a committee at the province-level to reform Punjabi language courses and degree programmes in colleges and universities across the province. It says WPC members could assist the committee.

Speakers at the conference stated that use of obsolete words and expressions should be discouraged and new vocabulary introduced to popularise the language. Other demands put forth at the conference were the establishment of a Punjabi university in the city, jobs for masters’ degree holders in Punjabi language, adequate quotas of government advertisements for Punjabi-language newspapers and journals and enhanced financial assistance to Punjabi literary bodies.

The conference lamented the condition of Punjabi film industry and demanded that the federal government announce financial assistance for filmmakers. The declaration criticised the broadcast media and publishing houses for not promoting Punjabi language and for showing Punjabi culture in a derogatory way. The conference highlighted the importance of the use of social media and the internet in efforts towards promotion of Punjabi language and culture.

It stated that those calling for partition of the Punjab tended to reject Punjabi language and culture.

Punjab University Vice Chancellor Mujahid Kamran, Beaconhouse National University Dean Mehdi Hassan, Professor Qamar Abbas, Syed Afzal Haider, Dr Safdar Shah, Ahmed Saleem, Shaukat Ali, Hassan Nisar, former ambassador Tauheed Ahmed, Hussain Naqi, Tariq Khurshid, Rana Ehtesham, Bahar Begum, Nasreen Anjum, Qazi Javed, IA Rehman, Dr Akhtar Shumar, Karamat Bukhari, Nazir Qaiser, Parveen Malik, Dr Naheed Shahid, Syed Bhutta, Dr Naveed Shehzad, Humair Hashmi, Iftikhar Mijaz and Shujat Hashmi were present at the conference.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 7^th, 2015.