SHIKARPUR, Oct 30: Former provincial minister Imtiaz Ahmed Shaikh has said that those living in Sindh are Sindhis and they should continue their joint struggle for restoration of usurped rights of the province.

He said that residents of Sindh should strive to protect the Sindhi language because everyone had accepted Urdu as the national language and English as the international language.

Speaking at a press conference here on Sunday, Mr Shaikh said that he was in favour of introduction of Sindhi as compulsory subject for Urdu-speaking students and Urdu as a compulsory subject for Sindhi students from class-III to class-XI.

Replying to a question about the Language Bill 1972, the former minister said that he was a strong supporter of the bill, passed by the Sindh Assembly in which teaching of Sindhi language was introduced as a compulsory subject for Urdu-speaking students and Urdu as a compulsory subject for Sindhi students up to class-XII.