BATHINDA: A demand for the promotion of Punjabi was raised during scores of programmes in Indian and Pakistani Punjabs on International Mother Tongue Day, and both sides rued the raw treatment meted out to the language.
Marches and seminars at Lahore and Pakpattan in Pakistan called for Punjabi-medium instruction in schools and colleges. Pakistan, which has a sizable Punjabi-speaking population, teaches the language only after matriculation, that too as elective subject at the intermediate, graduation, and postgraduation levels. A demand for more respectful treatment to Punjabi is being made for decades.
Punjabi Parchar, an organisation for the promotion of Punjabi in Pakistan, marched in Lahore with the support of Punjabi Adabi Board, besides the Institute for Peace and Secular studies. Punjabi Parchar president Ahmad Raza said: "All the Pakistani provinces except Punjab have right of education in mother language. This is injustice to a vast population, which regards Punjabi as its mother language."
On February 19, a big rally was organised at Minchnibad in Bahawalnagar district of Punjab province, where Raza joined Punjabi poets Baba Najmi and Afzal Saahir is speaking up for Punjabi language. Diep Saeeda from the Institute for Peace and Secular Studies raised a similar demand.
Punjab Lok Sujag and Punjab Lok Sangat held seminars in Lahore. The Lahore College for Women University (LCWU) and the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) held a programme themed ‘Apni boli bol (speak your native language)’. The Sanjh Pakpattan held a march at Pakpattan along with a cultural show at Sahiwal town in Punjab. Shafiq Butt of Lok Sujag said Punjabis got together to observe the day in different ways, at Lahore mainly, asking the provincial government to give Punjabi its due.
