SWABI, Feb 22: The status of the Pushto language has been declining and the successive governments had failed to give due consideration to it or take steps even for its survival.
Speaking at a programme organized in connection with the 'Mother Tongue Day' here on Saturday they demanded vigorous efforts for arresting the continuous decline of the Pushto language.
The general secretary of the Pushto Adabi Saqapathi Jirga, Bakhat Sher Aseer, said it would be better for different Pukhtun communities to constitute a body which for formulating and forwarding proposals to the government for saving the Pushto language from decline.
The Pukhtuns, he said, since Ahmad Shah Abdali (1747) had remained rulers but they failed to take steps for strengthening of the Pushto language. First, he said, it was "victimized" by the Persian language and now by Urdu.
It was strange that though Urdu was not the language of a community too much importance had been given to it by the rulers, he added.
The President of Qam Qalam, Noorul Amin Yousafzai, said the nations across the world had given due importance to their mother tongue and that was the reason they had achieved extraordinary development in various fields. "If the continued decline is not arrested the Pushto language may even lose the present status in the next two decades," he observed.
Despite various attacks and occupation of Pukhtun regions by British colonialists, he said, the Pukhtun community had not only protected their language but foiled the occupation to conquer them. However, he added, now the situation had taken an ugly turn and the information technology had not only harmed the Pushto language but also other languages.
A luminary of Qam Qalam, Aziz Minerwal, said it was deplorable that only one newspaper was being published in Pushto language from Peshawar and that was also widely read by Afghan refugees instead of the Pukhtun community of Pakistan.
Only the literary people, he further said, had advocated strengthening of the Pushto language but those in authority never came forward in this connection. "We must initiate a movement for enriching and strengthening the Pushto language," he stressed.
The tehsil Nazim, Masood Jabbar, said the western scientists had achieved breakthroughs in the scientific fields and most of the scientific information was in the English language and the circumstances had forced the world to learn "this international language".
He, however, added: "Despite that no one can deny the importance of mother tongue and without improving the mother tongue no nation can achieve the desired objectives." He said the Afghan government had given much more importance to the Pushto language and the credit of its survival also goes to Afghans.
Distinguished poet Jehan Badhar said the British colonialists had divided the Pukhtuns of the Federally Administrated Tribal Areas, Balochistan, the NWFP and Afghanistan, greatly harming their unity and powerful position, and ultimately resulting in the decline of the status of the Pushto language. He said there was a great need of creating unity among the Pukhtun communities and only then the Pushto language could make progress.
