Karachi:The native languages of all the four provinces in Pakistan should be declared as national languages on the pattern of India since the Pakistan Academy of Letters had also declared all the languages of Pakistan as national languages in 1994, according to Sindh Minister for Culture Sassui Palijo.

The minister has submitted a proposed bill in this regard to Constitutional Reforms Committee headed by Senator Raza Rabbani.

According to the contents of the proposed bill, Sindhi language should be declared as national language since it is an established ancient language, which fulfills the criteria of a national language. Denying this status to the Sindhi language would be tantamount to repeating the past mistake of ignoring the Bengali language, she said. “It is in the fitness of the present conditions, political, social, educational and economical to declare Sindhi as national language,” said Ms Palijo.

She points out that there are at least eight criterions for declaring any language as national and Sindhi language fulfills all.

Elaborating, the culture minister says that Sindhi is being used by the people in their daily life for all the purposes of society, and it is being spoken throughout generations from the time immemorial.

According to her, it is being used as official and court language and also as a medium of instruction from primary up to the higher education. It is being used for its literary and media communication and it is an exponent of the various feelings of the people. It is able to borrow and use the words and phrases from any other developed language and can transform that stock of words according to its own grammatical structure. It has originated from the language of the soil and the speakers of that language feel proud of presenting it as their national language.

Talking about the features of the Sindhi language, the minister says that Sindhi is an original language of Indus Valley people, which possess all the peculiarities of a developed language. It is one of the ancient languages of the world and “national treasure” of Pakistan. Sindhi language is rich in folk, classical, modern, progressive and scientific literature. It had remained as an official and court language before and during British period and continues as such in Sindh till date.

Presently, books on various subjects including textbooks, dailies, weeklies and monthlies are being regularly produced in Sindhi language.

Ms Palijo points out that there are eight Sindhi satellite TV channels in addition to other electronic media operating in Sindh and abroad.

She believes that Pakistan is a multi-cultural and multi-lingual country and it is also an accepted fact that Pakistan is not a unitary form of state but it is a federation of various provinces. The Lahore Resolution (23rd March 1940) says that Pakistan is a federation consisting of various provinces where different languages are spoken and where different varieties of cultures are followed.The news