ISLAMABAD: Minister for National History and Literary Heritage Shafqat Mahmood on Sunday said the federal government would organise a national conference on languages.

Speaking at the concluding ceremony of the fifth Pakistan Mother Languages Literature Festival, the minister said every possible step would be taken for protection and preservation of languages and identities, which were, in fact, assets of the country.

The three-day event was organised by Indus Cultural Forum in collaboration with Pakistan National Council of the Arts (PNCA) and participated by large numbers of writers and literary figure from across the country.

Mr Mahmood, who is also the federal minister for education, said education system of the country was not based on equality.

He said a uniform education system would be introduced to provide an equal opportunity to students to excel.

Fifth Pakistan Mother Languages Literature Festival concludes

The minster appreciated the efforts of the organiers of the event for highlighting the importance of the local languages.

During the event, more than 20 languages were discussed besides launching of 50 books.

Speaking on the occasion, PNCA Director General Dr Fouzia Saeed said besides focusing on visual and performing arts the PNCA would also play its role for promotion of languages.

Minister for State on Climate Change Zartaj Gul and Parliamentary Secretary Ghazala Saifi also attended the closing ceremony.

Zubaida Birwani from ICF and Mazhar Arif from Society for Alternate Media and Research also spoke and stressed promoting mother languages.

Writer Akhtar Baloch called upon people to take ownership of Karachi before its heritage was lost forever.

“Nobody owns Karachi today. Its founding members, Hindus, Parsis, Christians have mostly left. If its residents do not claim ownership, hospitals and colleges and the ghanta ghar they built will be lost by the next decade,” said the author of a book, Karanchi Wala.

Shahzada Tanvirul Mulk, who spoke on ‘Chitral and Art’, drew attention towards poetry and music of the northern region which he described as rich, diverse and almost heavenly.

Topics like translations of mother language literature, 21st century challenges to languages and roll of writers, launching of new short story books in mother languages, history of journalism in mother languages, city profiles in mother languages, documenting and preserving languages, mother languages digital age and launching of new books on contemporary issues were discussed.

The festival ended with performance by one of the top singers of the country, Hadiqa Kiani, which enthralled the audience.

Published in Dawn, February 24th, 2020