Gandhara Hindko Board seeks KP govt support

PESHAWAR: Gandhara Hindko Board, a literary and cultural organisation, has requested Chief Minister Muhammad Sohail Afridi and Governor Faisal Karim Kundi for financial support so that ongoing projects for the promotion and development of regional languages could be expanded.

In a statement issued here on Thursday, Muhammad Ziauddin, General Secretary of the board, lauded the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly’s decision to include Hindko, Saraiki, and Gojri among the parliamentary languages of the assembly, allowing official proceedings in these languages along with English, Urdu and Pashto.

He thanked KP Assembly Speaker Babar Saleem Swati and the members of the provincial assembly for the move. “It will not only strengthen the province’s linguistic and cultural heritage but also instill pride among speakers of these languages,” said Ziauddin who is a known research scholar of Hindko language and has books to his credit.

The board’s general secretary said that the diverse languages of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa reflect the region’s rich culture, history, and traditions, and their promotion is the need of the hour.He said the Gandhara Hindko Board has been working for 32 years for the preservation and promotion of Hindko, Saraiki, Gojri, and other regional languages of the province.

“With official patronage, the board can enhance its literary and academic activities for all regional languages,” said Muhammad Ziauddin who specializes in documentation.It is worth mentioning that Hindko is the second main language of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and sixth widely spoken language of Pakistan.