LAHORE, Feb 21: Speakers at a seminar on Wednesday demanded that Punjabi language should be introduced as a medium of instruction in primary schools of the Punjab.

The seminar was organised by the Punjab Forum to mark the World Mother Tongue’s Day at Alhamra Hall III with Punjabi scholar and writer Shafqat Tanvir Mirza in the chair.

World Punjabi Congress president Fakhar Zaman said the mother tongues were important media of imparting basic education to the children which should be promoted and popularised to promote literacy and education. In this connection the importance of the mother tongues spoken in different parts of Pakistan could not be ignored and the government should take necessary steps to promote them. In Punjab the Punjabi should be introduced as medium of instruction in primary schools and should be taught at higher levels too.

He said a Punjabi university should be set up in Punjab and other provinces. Promotion of regional languages would not diminish the importance of Urdu, he added.

“We are not against Urdu which has its own importance as a language of communication among the people of various parts of Pakistan.”

Mr Zaman said the Quaid-i-Azam had never said Urdu would be the national language of Pakistan. Addressing the students at Dhaka University in February 1948, he had suggested that Urdu should be an official language. However, it was Liaquat Ali Khan who had said in the Constituent Assembly that Urdu would be a national language and Maulvi Abdul Haq had gone to the extent of labeling the opponents of Urdu as unbelievers.

He said the Punjabi language spoken and written in the Pakistani Punjab was far better than that of the Indian Punjab.

He said Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi’s slogan of ‘Parha Likkha Punjab’ would remain meaningless without promoting the Punjabi language in the province.

Mr Mirza said a minority member of the National Assembly M P Bhandara had moved a bill for making the portion of the Quaid-i-Azam’s speech of August 11, 1947 at the inauguration of Constituent Assembly regarding the equal rights for the minorities as a part of the constitution. The ruling PML should also move a bill incorporating the portions of the Quaid’s speeches of Dhaka and Chittagong in which he had asked the provincial governments to introduce their regional languages in their respective provinces along with Urdu as an official language.

He said the problems of the people of the Punjab could not be separated from those of their language. The Sindh government had allocated heavy funds for ‘Sindhiology Department’ for the promotion of Sindhi language.

Punjab University Punjabi Department chairman Dr Ismatullah Zahid demanded that the increments to the Punjabi language teachers holding the masters degrees in Punjabi stopped by the government, should be restored to provide an incentive to them.

Former chairman of department Dr Shahbaz Malik said the Punjabi language and not its various dialects should be introduced as a medium of instruction. There were as many as 19 dialects and half of them were in vogue in Pakistan and the rest in India. He also demanded that the examination paper in the Punjabi removed from the examinations of the Punjab Public Service Commission should be restored.

Punjab Forum president Abbas Najmi urged various Punjabi organisations and institutions working for the promotion of Punjabi language should unite and step up their efforts to press their demands, including the demand for making it a medium of instruction at primary level.

Other speakers included MNA Rai Azizullah, Zahid Masood, Amar Riaz, Muddassir Iqbal Butt, Mushtaq Soofi, Pervaiz Shaheen, Rashed Hasan Rana, Nazir Kahut, Husain Shad, Ms Farkhanda Lodhi and Muhammad Daood, while Ms Javeria read out a paper by GCU Philosophy Department chairman Mirza Athar Baig in English.