Pakistan: Members of Sindh Assembly demand national language status for Sindhi

Islamabad [Pakistan], February 23 (ANI): Members of the Sindh Assembly on Tuesday unanimously passed a resolution demanding national language status for the Sindhi language, Dawn reported.
Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader Heer Soho tabled the resolution and said that mother tongues should be made a mandatory part of the curriculum and all languages spoken in the country should be declared as national languages.
Heer Soho stated that a bill was pending in the National Assembly regarding the matter and stressed that it should be approved, as per the news report. She said that the Sindhi Language was not spoken in the city's schools and stressed the need to introduce the language in the educational institutions.
Speaking on the resolution, the Opposition and treasury lawmakers demanded that the major languages spoken in the provinces of Pakistan must be given the status of national languages. Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) leader Muhammad Hussain stated that each person is proud of their mother tongue as children get their first lesson from it.
"Just as people want respect for their own language, so the language of others should also be respected," Dawn quoted Muhammad Hussain as saying.
Nand Kumar of the Grand Democratic Alliance said, "As many languages are spoken in the country, they should be given the status of national languages," according to Dawn. PPP leader Marvi Faseeh said the Sindhi language is 5,000 years old.
Faseeh stressed that many languages had been given the status of national language in Pakistan's neighbouring country. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader Sanjay Ghangwani called for passing the language bill in the National Assembly.
PPP leader Kulsoom Chandio said that teachers were unable to teach the Sindhi language to the students at schools. Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal leader Syed Abdur Rahseed said the progress of the developed and developing countries should be seen, as per the Dawn report.
He said, "If you look at their literacy rate, it is their mother tongue behind the success." Syed Abdur Rahseed emphasised that Urdu has not been made the official language of Pakistan even after 75 years. He said that professional education needs to be introduced in Urdu and Sindhi.
In his address, Provincial Minister of Sindh for Agriculture, Ismail Rahoo said every language should be granted the status of national language and added that there were currently 60 languages in Pakistan, as per the news report.
He called on the Pakistan government to pass the language Bill immediately, the report stated further. (ANI)