If not suppressed, every language has the capacity and potential to contribute to human civilisation, said Talimand Khan, Central Information Secretary, Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP).
Khan made the remarks while addressing a seminar held to commemorate the mother language day, at the Swat Press Club on Tuesday.
"As the saying goes that it is the 'it's not the gun but the man behind the gun', language is the mere conveyor of thoughts and ideas that the mind creates or invents," he told those in attendance.
Khan stressed that it was the quest for political and economic domination by certain nations and groups of elite, especially colonisers, that resulted in the weaponising of language for exploitation and to maintain superiority over others.
"Social diversity and pluralism is a strength, provided that there is a fair political play," he maintained.
To substantiate his argument, he said that Switzerland, a developed European country, has four national and official languages: German (62.6%), French (22.9%), Italian (8.2%), and Romansh with a mere 0.5% speakers.
"Thanks to the country's fair political system, ethnic and linguistic diversity neither posed any threat to its territorial integrity, nor hindered its development," the PkMAP leader remarked.
Unfortunately, he maintained, Pakistani elites, who were in search of a country and a nation, declared a foreign language as official and Urdu as a national language which was spoken only by 7% at the time.
This could neither help in the development process, nor in national integration, he said, adding that the footprints of current poly-crisis is rooted in aversion to diversity, plurality, and imposition of the rule of the elite.
Khan paid glowing tributes to the martyrs, injured or who faced incarceration, on the same day in 1952 and those who subsequently struggled to ensure that February 21 is commemorated as the Mother Language Day.
In view of its the day's undeniable significance, PkMAP commemorates it regularly, he maintained.
Other speakers, also, spoke about the importance of mother tongue and its role and potential in disseminating knowledge, and ensuring development and national integration.
They advised against victimising a language on political basis and called upon private schools to began teaching Pashto and other regional languages as a subject in the areas of their usage.
Iqbal Hussain Balay of the PPP, Mufti Arifullah of JUI, Abdul Ali of ANP, Syed Afzal Shah of the PMLN, as well as Sherinzada, Chairman Swat Press Club, besides literary figures, Shaukat Sharar, Fazal Mahmood Rokhan, and Wakeel Khan from the hotel association addresses the participants.
Khan made the remarks while addressing a seminar held to commemorate the mother language day, at the Swat Press Club on Tuesday.
"As the saying goes that it is the 'it's not the gun but the man behind the gun', language is the mere conveyor of thoughts and ideas that the mind creates or invents," he told those in attendance.
Khan stressed that it was the quest for political and economic domination by certain nations and groups of elite, especially colonisers, that resulted in the weaponising of language for exploitation and to maintain superiority over others.
"Social diversity and pluralism is a strength, provided that there is a fair political play," he maintained.
To substantiate his argument, he said that Switzerland, a developed European country, has four national and official languages: German (62.6%), French (22.9%), Italian (8.2%), and Romansh with a mere 0.5% speakers.
"Thanks to the country's fair political system, ethnic and linguistic diversity neither posed any threat to its territorial integrity, nor hindered its development," the PkMAP leader remarked.
Unfortunately, he maintained, Pakistani elites, who were in search of a country and a nation, declared a foreign language as official and Urdu as a national language which was spoken only by 7% at the time.
This could neither help in the development process, nor in national integration, he said, adding that the footprints of current poly-crisis is rooted in aversion to diversity, plurality, and imposition of the rule of the elite.
Khan paid glowing tributes to the martyrs, injured or who faced incarceration, on the same day in 1952 and those who subsequently struggled to ensure that February 21 is commemorated as the Mother Language Day.
In view of its the day's undeniable significance, PkMAP commemorates it regularly, he maintained.
Other speakers, also, spoke about the importance of mother tongue and its role and potential in disseminating knowledge, and ensuring development and national integration.
They advised against victimising a language on political basis and called upon private schools to began teaching Pashto and other regional languages as a subject in the areas of their usage.
Iqbal Hussain Balay of the PPP, Mufti Arifullah of JUI, Abdul Ali of ANP, Syed Afzal Shah of the PMLN, as well as Sherinzada, Chairman Swat Press Club, besides literary figures, Shaukat Sharar, Fazal Mahmood Rokhan, and Wakeel Khan from the hotel association addresses the participants.