KARACHI, Dec 24: Speakers at a convention on Saturday urged that all local languages — Punjabi, Sindhi, Pushto and Balochi and Seraiki — be declared as national languages and that no dam be constructed over the Indus River.

The convention titled ‘A pilgrimage to motherland’ was organized by Sindhi Association of North America.

A veteran human rights and political activist, Comrade Sobho Gianchandani, who formally inaugurated the convention, said that it was universally accepted that as a tool for education and communication purposes, the mother-tongue played a vital role in developing an individual. It is the most powerful instrument in preserving and developing people’s tangible and intangible heritage.

He urged people to work hard for developing Sindhi language further so that Sindhis living abroad, their largest concentration being in India, could learn and continued to use it without any difficulty.

He said that another serious issue being faced by people of Sindh was water shortage. “Now a prince from Delhi wants to construct Kalabagh Dam, which is a matter of life and death for Sindhis. Sindhis will not allow its construction at any cost and if forced, they may lay down their lives while resisting the project.”

SANA chief Aziz Narejo gave brief introduction of the organization, established nearly two decades back by the Sindhis living in North America for the betterment and progress of Sindhis.

Referring to the Lahore Resolution 1940, they said that the constituent units should be autonomous and sovereign. However, they added, their dreams were shattered when the Establishment of this newly-born country started denying the rights of its constituent units, rejecting the cultures and languages of indigenous people.

They said it had made Pakistan a distinct country with a foreign language being its national language, which created a sense of deprivation and alienation among the native population. The situation worsened when Bengali, which was mother-tongue of majority population, was not recognized as its national language, they said.

They stressed that Pakistan was a multinational and multicultural country, like many other countries, and it was in the interest of the country’s stability and harmony that it recognized the languages of its constituent federating units and gave them their due status and importance.

They noted that no surplus water was available in the Indus River system, and whatever quantity being stored in the existing reservoirs was also not distributed judiciously among the federating units in accordance with the relevant agreements. In this context, they warned that any further manipulation of river flows would severely affect the lower areas of the Indus.

Abdul Majeed Bhurgary, Jameel Daudi, Dr Aijaz Turk, Dr Mazhar Khowaja, Surriya Panhwar and others also spoke.

On this occasion, SANA Award for Mai Jindan, mother of some victims of a tragedy in Tando Bahawal (near Hyderabad), where some members of a law-enforcement agency had gunned down several innocent people in a dispute and had declared them ‘terrorists’.