Wagah (Amritsar), May 27
Punjabi has finally found a foothold in Pakistan, with the state Assembly allowing the use of the language in the House for debates, discussions and presentation of views etc. There would also be no restriction on oath-taking in the language. This was stated by Mr Fakar Zaman, president of the World Punjabi Congress, who arrived with a 138-member delegation of poets, writers, journalists, doctors actors from Pakistan here today.
Mr Zaman said Punjabi language was facing an identity crisis and there was a struggle for its proper status in Pakistan. For the promotion of the language, an institute of Punjabi language and literature has been set up in Lahore. Grants in crores would fund the institute shortly, he added.
He revealed that Punjabi in Gurmukhi script would be introduced at masters level and they were trying to achieve the target of Punjabi as a medium of instruction and elective subject at all other levels of education.
Khalid Sultan, Deputy Coordinator (DC), Lahore, who arrived with his wife Shaheen Khalid, while echoing the sentiments of Faqar, said a Punjabi paper in Gurmukhi had been introduced to promote the language in its original script and not only in Shahmukhi. He said the Partition had led to Muslim settlers promotion of only Pashto, Arabic and Urdu languages, while Punjabi suffered a setback.
On the recent killing of the BSF personnel in Jammu and twin blasts in Karachi yesterday, Khalid Sultan said destabilising forces were at play to thwart the peace in the two nations. He admitted that some of these elements were from both countries, while some were foreign mercenaries.
Actress Zareen Suliman, popularly called ‘Panna’, said Indian films were a big hit as their story-lines were strong.
Asif Bukhari, chief executive, Ocean Vista TV Production house, said he was making a serial ‘saas pe saas, bahu udaas’, inspired by an Indian serial of similar title .
Ghulam Mohinuddin a famous Punjabi actor in
Pakistan, said he was on the team slated to work out modalities for an Indo-Pak film production.
Mr Zaman, along with the delegation, was welcomed by the district administration. They would head for the World Punjabi Conference to be held in Chandigarh from May 28 to 30.
Meanwhile, Mr Gulzar Singh Sandhu and Mr Mohan Bhandari, both Punjabi Sahitya Award winners, and Dr Raghbir Singh editor of a Punjabi magazine from Chandigarh, said they and many other Punjabi writers had not been invited to the World Punjabi Conference.
