July 09, 2008	Wednesday	Rajab 5, 1429

KARACHI, July 8: Speakers at a meeting have deplored that the government is not giving due importance to the Sindhi language and the people will have to struggle hard to protect their language and culture.

Speaking at meeting organized in connection with the Sindhi Language Day by the Jeay Sindh Mahaz at Gulshan-i-Hadeed on Monday, JSM chief Abdul Khaliq Junejo said the Japanese, Chinese and Germans had progressed by studying in their own languages. He said his party was not against learning other languages, but not at the cost of Sindhi.

He alleged that Sindh was being robbed of its resources in the name of the 1973 Constitution, which in fact was a document meant to enslave the Sindhis and the Baloch. He said people who wanted control over their resources and protection of their language, culture and identity would have to reject that “exploitative document”.

Dr Qasim Bughio said that now a language was not just a medium of communication but it was a medium through which a nation could progress culturally, socially and economically.

Hashim Khoso, Amar Junejo, Ayaz Hakro, Sami Baloch and others also spoke.