Inclusion of Khowar in languages for national status hailed

CHITRAL, March 23: The Anjuman Taraqqi-e-Khowar and the Mother Tongue Institute for Education and Research (MIER) held a joint meeting with Shahzada Tanvirul Mulk, the central president of Anjuman Taraqqi-e-Khowar, in the chair.

The purpose of the joint meeting was to appreciate the encouraging initiative taken by the National Assembly standing committee on information, broadcasting and national heritage to include Khowar among the languages which are likely to be granted the status of national languages. The participants of the meeting highly hailed the initiative of the standing committee and appreciated the members of Forum for Language Initiatives (FLI) for their role in getting Khowar included among such languages.

They said ‘Khowar has a centuries-old history and heritage which apart from being the lingua franca of Chitral was also spoken in the district of Ghizer (Gilgit-Baltistan) and Kalam Valley (Swat). Moreover, there is a sizable population of Khowar speakers in down country cities such as Peshawar, Karachi, Islamabad and Rawalpindi. Thus the approximate population of Khowar speakers is 0.8 million.

The participants included Dr. Inayatullah Faizi, Yousuf Shahzad, Maula Nigah Nigah, Mohammad Irfan Irfan, Farid Ahmad Raza, the president MIER, Zahoor ul Haq Danish and Atta Hussain Athar. The speakers especially appreciated the efforts of Fakhruddin Akhunzada, the director FLI, who represented Khowar and other minor languages in the mentioned meeting of the standing committee.

It is to be noted that the standing committee on information, broadcasting and heritage in the said meeting unanimously passed a resolution whereby it has been recommended that the following languages be granted the status of national languages: Balochi, Balti, Broshaski, Brahui, Hindko, Khowar, Kashimiri, Pahari, Pashto, Punjabi, Saraiki, Shina and Sindhi.–Farid Ahmad Raza