June 23, 2008	Monday	Jamadi-us-Sani 18, 1429

HYDERABAD, June 22: Sindh Minister for Culture and Tourism Sassui Palijo has said that instructions have been issued for compiling a Sindhi encyclopaedia and urged Sindhi writers, scholars and intellectuals to cooperate with the provincial government in this huge project.

She was speaking at an educational conference organised by the Sindhi Language Authority here on Saturday.

The minister stressed the need for holding international seminars and discussions for development and promotion of the Sindhi language.

She urged various institutions and organisations working for the development and promotion of the Sindhi language and asked scholars to speed up their research and offered her government’s support in this regard.

Renowned scholar Dr Nabi Bux Khan Baloch said that in an historical perspective, Shah jo Risalo was a model for the Sindhi language.

He said that Sindhi schools and teachers were performing the role of a fort for the protection of the language.

He advised the Sindhi Language Authority and other organisations working for the development and promotion of the Sindhi language to organise seminars and discussions from provincial to union council level for the correct use of the language and added that teachers of the Sindhi language should also be imparted training in this regard.

He regretted that with the passage of time, the use of Sindhi language in offices had decreased. During the British rule, Dr Baloch said, all notifications were used to be issued in the Sindhi language but today, right from the record of the revenue department to Nikkahnama (marriage certificate), Sindhi language had been discarded.

Ibrahim Joyo said that language was the identity of a nation and providing protection to the language was equal to protecting the identity of a nation. Dr Abdul Jabbar Junejo SLA Chairman Dr Fehmida Hussain, Taj Joyo, Imdad Hussaini, Naseer Mirza and others also spoke.