PESHAWAR: Only Pakhtun nationalist political parties observed the International Mother Language Day in the province while Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government seemed unaware of the importance of the day.
The day was observed only by Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) and Awami National Party (ANP). They demanded that Pashto, spoken by majority of people in Khyber Pakthunkhwa, should be promoted as official, educational, judicial and financial language of the province.
“The present government has conspired to sabotage our efforts to promote mother tongues,” alleged ANP general secretary Mian Iftikhar Hussain while addressing a function held at Bacha Khan Markaz in connection with International Mother Language Day.
He said that rulers were continuing to behave the way they behaved with the Bengalis. “If Bengalis were given their due right, neither Pakistan would have lost it nor there would have been any ethnic issues that it faced today,” he added.
Only Pakhtun nationalist political parties hold events to observe mother language day
Mr Hussain said that Pakhtuns were also pushed into a war during the last 40 years which had nothing to do with them as a nation but they were forced to bear the brunt of it. He said that the previous provincial government of ANP tried to promote Pashto and other mother tongues and give them due importance but the present government due to its ‘anti-Pakhtun’ behaviour sabotaged all those efforts. The ANP leader said that no one could progress without promotion of mother tongue.
Pakhtuns all over the world termed inclusion of Pashto language by Google in its translator a great gift for them as it coincided with International Mother language Day, however, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government seemed not to care much about the importance of mother tongue as neither a statement was issued nor any function was held to show its will to promote mother languages.
Pakhtun Students Federation also took part in a rally to raise awareness about importance of mother tongue. The participants of the rally called it one’s basic right to learn in one’s mother tongue.
“From the looks of it, ANP is the only political party that celebrated the International Mother Languages Day,” said Khushal Khattak, chief of National Youth Organisation, speaking about the event held at Bacha Khan Markaz.
However, seizing the opportunity of observing the mother languages day in provincial capital, the activists of PkMAP also took out a rally. The participants of the rally were holding red banners on which slogans were written in Pashto.
They demanded that Pashto should be promoted by the government as official, judicial and educational language so that it could flourish.
Despite a Pashto speaking populated province having many other regional languages like Hindko, Khowar (Chitrali), Seraikli, Kohistani and many other languages, Urdu and English are mostly used for official, educational and even business purposes. Due to the promotion of only Urdu and English, children don’t learn to write or read their mother tongues. “It has hampered their study of a treasure of literature written in their mother tongue and has estranged them from their own culture,” said participants of the event at Bacha Khan Markaz.
Pakhtun Nobel Peace Prize Winner Malala Yousafzai and her family also tweeted a photograph, holding a placard with a Pashto verse about importance of learning one’s mother tongue. The verse explains how learning foreign languages is an art but forgetting one’s mother tongue is a tragic flaw.
Many Pakhtuns on social media, especially twitter, expressed their regrets at people for ignoring importance of the mother tongue and for speaking with their children in English or Urdu.
“Our mother tongue gives us identity and it is our pride,” said Palwasha Abbas, a young political activist.
Published in Dawn, February 22nd, 2016