PESHAWAR, Feb 21: Speakers at a function held here on Tuesday urged the government to take steps for providing primary education in local languages in consonance with the United Nations Charter.

Speaking at the function organised by the culture committee of the Peshawar Press Club, provincial Educational Minister Maulana Fazle Ali Haqqani said the government was ready to patronise all mother tongues. He said mother tongue was the best medium to educate children.

“The United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization adopted a resolution in 1963 calling upon all the governments to make arrangements for provision of education to students in their mother tongues,” said, Dr Suhail Insha.

He said the resolution was adopted following the killing of three students in 1952, who were demanding that Bengali be adopted as national language.

He said Pakistan was a multilingual country home to speakers of a number of small and big languages. All the languages had their own culture and history which needed to be preserved, he said.

He said Pukhtuns living in 129 countries had launched over 120 websites to serve their mother tongue. According to him, late Bacha Khan had launched the first Pushto magazine in 1928, now the number of such publications had crossed 250.

He said the language of 31 million Pukhtuns had no official status.

He said the right to adopt Pushto as medium of school education should be given.

Tariq Hashmi said Seraiki was one of the 2,800 languages spoken in the world but its speakers had not been given an opportunity to study their mother tongue at school and college levels. He said a department of Seraiki was launched in Bahawalpur University about eight years ago and other provinces should follow suit.

Rohan Yousafzai lauded the efforts of Sindhis for promotion of their language, saying that there were over 100 Sindhi newspapers, three television channels and several magazines and national identity cards were printed in the language.

Mukhtar Ali Nayyar stressed the need for joint struggle for the development of mother tongues.

“Hindko should be declared medium of education in areas inhabited by its speakers,” he said, adding that there was no clash among the local languages.