PESHAWAR, July 6: The World Pushto Congress, a literary organization, has stressed the need for launching a movement for the promotion of Pushto culture and language. “Holding mushairas and seminars for the promotion of Pushto culture and language would make no difference. There is a need to launch a forceful movement under the patronage of the government,” said Prof Jehanzeb Niaz, chairman of the congress, at a press conference here on Wednesday.

He said that the chief ministers of Punjab and Sindh provinces were taking steps at the official level for the aggrandizement of their respective languages but the NWFP government was doing nothing to put the Pushto language and culture on the path of development.

“The Pakhtun nation is at a crossroads. It is the need of the hour that all Pakhtun intellectuals, writers and poets get united on a single platform and wage a struggle for the promotion of their language,” he added. He said that there was a dire need to bring the language at par with the modern languages of the world.

He asked the government to establish a writers’ club and give representation to the literary people on the award committee of the provincial culture department.

“The present committee doesn’t represent the literary figures because a certain group has representation in it,” he alleged.

He said that the congress had nominated its coordinators in America and Canada, while more would be announced for Karachi, Rawalpindi, Quetta and the tribal areas soon.