Cultural policy to be devised by March this year: Pervaiz Rashid

Islamabad

Federal Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid said that government is in process of broad consultation to devise a cultural policy by March this year for promotion and protection of various cultures of the county.  

He was speaking at the concluding session of first ever Mother Languages Literature Festival, organised by Indus Cultural Forum (ICF) in collaboration with Lok Virsa and Strengthening Participatory Organisation (SPO). 

The two-day festival also coincided with the International Mother Languages Day on 21 February, declared by Unesco. Over 150 writers from over 15 Pakistani mother languages participated in the event as speakers and moderators.

The federal minister while applauding the efforts of ICF said that this is primarily responsibility of the government to conduct such programs on cultural and linguistic diversity.

Fakhar Zaman, eminent Punjabi scholar, said that all mother languages be called as national languages and stressed the need for a bureau of translation be set up for promotion and preservation of mother languages. He also said that government should ensure the implementation of teaching mother languages at schools up till matriculation.

Niaz Nadeem, event coordinator, said that the event has reached out to millions of people through social, print and electronic media and this is power of mother language that attracted them.  

Lok Virsa Executive Director Dr Fozia Saeed said they will continue to support for such programmes. “One of the prime moto of the Lok Virsa is to promote different cultures,” she said, adding that they are transforming the institution into a public space where all culture and languages will get their due importance.

Earlier, speaking at session on ‘Social media and mother languages’, Safeerullah Khan said social media has connected people with different languages, adding that awareness of Mother Language Day has reached out to many of us due to social media.  

Speaking at the ‘Writing for Resistance’ session, Saleem Raz, Pashto writer, said that in the current situation, even writing is also resistance.

Tahir Mehdi, from Punjab Lok Sujaag, said that Punjabi language will never die as this is one of the most spoken languages along the Indus for ages, adding that it will continue to be spoken in future.