ISLAMABAD: Some 188 countries observe 21st of February as International Mother Language Day.
It may be recalled that on the first International Mother Language Day, the then UN Chief Kofi Annan had maintained: “This day will help to raise awareness among the nations of the world about the enduring value of their mother languages.”
In Pakistan various organizations on Sunday would organize different events on International Mother Language Day to mark its significance and pay love for the vernacular.
A musical evening has been organized by the Directorate of Sports, Culture and Tourism, Capital Development Authority and Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad at Arts and Craft Village.
The function arrayed to celebrate the Day being celebrated on 21st February every year, will start at 4:00 p.m. and conclude at 8:00 p.m. which will feature stalls of handmade crafts and food of different regions.
Mother Language Literature festival arrayed by Indus Cultural Forum (ICF) in collaboration with Pakistan Academy of Letters (PAL) at the later’s premises, is currently in its second day.
The multicultural fair that started on February 18 with award distribution ceremony to honour the lifetime contributions of local legends, unveiled a documentary by UNDP Pakistan about the beauty of Pakistan’s 72 languages, the world hasn’t seen before.
A filmed map of Pakistan showing location of each local language besides basic statistics of each tongue was special feature of the event. It was followed by a dialogue between its natives, who later on share the life in their area and the problems they face.
Simultaneously, a session on feminist literature in several mother tongues was held to highlight the importance of role of women in this arena.
The visitors, who are allowed free entry on all days, also had the opportunity to shop from book stalls selling works of authors belonging to diverse lingo on variety of genres.
This multilingual gala will wrap up tomorrow with wide range of activities including dialogues on role of literature festival, short stories, multilingual musical performances, exhibition and entertainment for kids.
The two-day “Pakistan Mother Languages Literature Festival” is being held at the Pakistan Academy of Letters (PAL) here from February 19 to 20 with the aim to promote linguistic and cultural diversity and to preserve, protect and promote the languages of the country.
The event will have parallel sessions on both days.
The festival would be organized by Indus Cultural Forum (ICF) in collaboration with PAL.
The opening ceremony of the festival will take place at PAL in which the Federal Minister for National History and Literary Heritage Shafqat Mahmood is likely to be the chief guest, an official of PAL Raza Mehmood told the Media on Thursday.
The well-known scholars and language experts would participate in two-day festival.
The festival will provide a platform for celebrating 70 plus languages of Pakistan and encourage language communities to take action for saving their languages from extinction.
The festival will feature various programs, i.e, poetry in mother languages, launching of new books and poetry recital sessions.
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