QUETTA: Members of the Balochi Academy on Sunday celebrated the reinstatement of a key government grant during their 67th general body meeting Sunday, an action that allowed the resumption of major projects to modernise and preserve the language.

The general body meeting, chaired by Habibtan Omar, focused on the academy annual performance, its financial and administrative affairs and future initiatives.

During the session, members approved the annual report and discussed proposals for the promotion of Balochi literature.

Mr Jamaldini said the renewed funding has allowed work to restart on a suspended Natural Language Processing (NLP) project.

The initiative aims to align the Balochi language with “digitalization and machine learning requirements”, he added.

Work on a Balochi Encyclopedia project has also been relaunched.

Despite the positive news, members expressed significant concerns over shortage of Balochi language teachers in government schools and urged the appointment of qualified instructors.

They demanded the government advertise vacant college-level teaching positions through Public Service Commission for prompt recruitment.

The body also condemned the proposal to shut down language and literature department in universities across Balochistan.

Members called upon the provincial government to instead strengthen these departments with additional financial and human resources.

A call was also made for both provincial and federal governments to provide increased funding for the academy’s literary and research initiatives, particularly the Balochi NLP project, which members said cannot progress under current financial constraints.

Additionally, members requested that the Balochistan School Education Department allocate books published by national language institutions to school and college libraries.

They asked the Culture Department to purchase the same books for public libraries to make them accessible to young readers.

Finally, the General Body directed its Executive Committee to accelerate efforts for the development of the language.

Mandates include producing educational content for children, translating classical works into Balochi, rendering Balochi literary masterpieces into English and other languages, and publishing research on Balochi dialects and history.

Published in Dawn, August 4th, 2025