PESHAWAR: A handful of Pashto writers and artists have launched a campaign asking shopkeepers, business firms, retailers, fruit sellers, cloth merchants, bookshops, restaurants and owners of general stores to turn their name boards into Pashto language to benefit people and raise awareness about significance of mother tongue.
“Kingar in Buner district became the first village to change the business boards into Pashto and the trend spread to other districts. The local people showed increasing interest in displaying their advertisements and publicity messages in Pashto,” said Amjad Shehzad, head of the campaign.
Market owners and business firms in several districts have displayed billboards, charts, and standees both computerised and handwritten to attract buyers’ attention and locals appreciate to see the contents in their mother tongue, says Naseeb Tanha, a volunteer of the campaign.
Amjad Shehzad, a noted Pashto poet and artist, along with his colleagues launched the campaign two months ago from Malakand, advising owners of markets to display their billboards, hoardings and advertisements in Pashto to popularise communication in mother tongue and take steps for making Pashto a market language.
Writers launch drive to highlight importance of mother tongue
He told this scribe that the campaign was converted into a full-fledged movement because hundreds of volunteers participated in it, raising awareness among people and visiting local market places to contribute to the social service.
“The basic aim of the campaign is to sensitise people about the purposeful usage of mother tongue and learn how to make Pashto a market language so our people from all walks of life can understand to communicate in their own language,” said Mr Shehzad.
He said that the idea soon became a success story across the province including tribal districts where well-off volunteers sponsored boards on the tops of their stores and business firms and even medical doctors and other professionals began displaying advertisements in Pashto outside their workplaces.
He said that the day was not far when the entire province would be flooded with boards and hoardings in local languages that would help the sellers and buyers taking a step towards making mother tongue medium of instructions as no nation could make progress without getting education in mother tongue.
“Once business owners understand its significance, education policymakers, teachers and academia would also be forced to own ingenious cultural values including mother tongue,” he said.
Published in Dawn, November 18th, 2020