AIOU to hold moot on local languages

Islamabad: Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) will hold an international conference on Pakistani languages in third week of this month to promote national integrity and cohesion.

The AIOU with 1.3 million students, having its 44 regional offices all over the country is a symbol of national integration and the forthcoming event will push forward the University’s efforts to achieve this cherished goal, Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Shahid Siddiqui, in a news release on Friday said.

It will be the second such event in the recent years that aimed to maintain national unity through language and literature.

Academicians and researchers from various universities have been invited to deliberate on the topic Colonial Literature and Pakistani languages.

It will provide platform to researchers and academicians to give their academic and intellectual input, as how to develop the language and literature as an instrument of national unity.

The AIOU is only university in the country that simultaneously provides learning facilities in regional languages, Punjabi, Sindhi, Pashto, Balochi, Brahui and Saraiki that has turned it a symbol of national unity.

It extends teaching facility in regional languages at the level of Matric, FA and BA.

Besides this, it also offers short courses in Punjabi, Sindhi, Pashto and Balochi.

The university through educational pursuits fulfils it national responsibility to influence the people’s mind to adopt positive and constructive approach in the nation-building task, the vice chancellor added.

The event is being organised by the University’s department of Pakistani Languages. Participates will deliberate upon the topic of Pakistani languages and colonial literature.