Pashto language, literature and culture

Speakers at a daylong conference put forward suggestions and point of views for the further promotion of Pashto language and literature and vowed that they would work together and integrate their efforts in this regard. They appreciated the decision of the Vice chancellor Prof Dr Azmat Hayat Khan of mergering Pashto Academy and Department University of Peshawar and restructured it as Centre of Pashto Language and Literature. The conference titled ‘ Pashto language, literature and culture’ was arranged under the auspices of Centre of Pashto Language and Literature University of Peshawar at Sir Sahibzada Abdul Qayyum Khan museum hall here on Tuesday. Research scholars said that they would support research projects initiated for further improvement of Pashto literature. They however, regretted the thin readership of Pashto books and lackluster interest of the successive governments regarding Pashto language and literature.

The speakers also pointed out number of problems and issues that prompted the promotion of Pashto language, adding that the government especially institutions and literary bodies should address the issues confronted by Pashto poets and writers. They demanded of the NWFP Governor Owais Ahmad Ghani to reinstate the “Writer’s Club” given and established earlier in the Old Commissioner House Peshawar for the writers and poets of Hindko, Urdu, and Pashto by the former governor.
Addressing on the occasion the Chairman World Pashto Conference (WPC) who was chief guest at the event said that Pashto should be given its due status in the corridors of power and it could not make improvement at any level unless it was made the market and employment language. He suggested that a formal request should be made to UNESCO and other international organizations for financial aid for initiating substantive research projects on history, social traditions and cultural values of Pashtuns. Prof Dr Mohammad Azam Azam resident director Pakistan Academy of Letters (PAL) Peshawar chapter while presiding over the conference recalled that great efforts had been in the past by scholars, writers and poets soon after the establishment of Pashto Academy by Maulana Abdul Qadir in 1955 and urged upon Pashtun intellectuals and writers to expedite their efforts for the promotion of Pashto language and literature.
Prof Dr Rajwali Shah Khattak director Centre of Pashto Language and Literature assured the participants of the conference that their genuine problems would be addressed and they would utilize their expertise and capabilities for Pashto. He said the main purpose of the conference was to gather suggestions and advices of the scholars for the promotion of Pashto language in the wake of the rapidly changing international scenario.
At the end a joint declaration was made in which Pashtun writers and intellectuals had pledged that they cooperate with the Centre of Pashto Language and Literature University of Peshawar regarding its various research projects adding that they would take joint efforts for the cause of Pashtun culture and language. Various committees were formed which would finalize different suggestions put forward by the participants of the conference. In addition to prominent Pashto writers, poets, research scholars and intellectuals, some 500 representative delegates from all Frontier districts and Fata attended the moot.
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By: Sher Alam Shinwari