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.
