PESHAWAR: The 7th International Hindko Conference concluded here on Sunday with a renewed pledge by the participants to work for promotion of Hindko and other native languages along with the associated cultures.

The two-day moot was jointly organised by the Gandhara Hindko Board and Gandhara Hindko Academy under the theme of “Achieving national unity through the promotion of Hindko and Indo-Aryan languages".

Board chairman Ejaz Ahmad Qureshi oversaw the arrangements while Mohammad Ziauddin, Prof Adnan Gul and Dr Salahuddin were the convener, chief organiser and moderator of the event, respectively.

Govt urged to issue annual grants to the Hindko board and academy

A total of four sessions were held on second day of the conference.

The chief guest of the first session was a Gojri language researcher from Malakand, Malik Raza Khan.

The presidium members were Turkish scholar Dr Halil Toqer, Ejaz Ahmad Qureshi, Prof Hafizullah, Shafiq Ahmad, Prof Adnan Gul, Khwaja Yawer Naseer, Dr Salahuddin and Ghayyur Sethi.

The chief guest greeted the board and the academy for the work on Indo-Aryan languages. He thanked both the bodies for paying attention to the Gojri and other languages and cultures.

The second session’s chief guest was Right to Public Services Commission’s chairman Mushtaq Jadoon. The presidium had a Brahvi language scholar Dr Salahuddin Mengal, Mohtarma Munawwar Ahmad, Dr Mohammad Nawaz, Raja Noor Mohammad Nizami, Mian Karimullah Qureshi and Ahmad Nadeem Awan.

Those who read out papers were Dr Halil Toqer, Kohistani language writer from Swat, Inamullah, Mohammad Akhtar Naeem, Prof Aurangzeb Hur, a Seraiki language scholar Sadia Kamal, Dr Mohammad Nawaz, Dr Rukhsana Qamar and Karimullah Qureshi, the Pahari language expert.

The third session speakers included Iqbal Sikandar, Malik Nasir Daud, Prof Hamidur Rehman, Dr Tajuddin, Aziz Ejaz and Qudsia Qudsi.

The fourth session, the last one, was devoted to music. Ustad Saeed Paaris, Zulfiqar Bhatti, Ahmad Nadeem Awan, Junaid Siddiqui, Ameer Hamza and Zeeshan Ghaznavi sang folk songs and entrained the audience.

A resolution was passed by the gathering in the end that demanded of the federal and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governments to issue annual grants to the Gandhara Hindko Board and academy as these organisations were not only working for the promotion of Hindko, but also for other Pakistani languages and cultures.

The second part of the resolution called for extending the Gandhara Hindko Academy project, which was being run under public-private partnership. Shields and certificates were also distributed among the participants.

Published in Dawn, January 7th, 2019