Literati call for projecting Chitral’s culture

By Zar Alam Khan

ISLAMABAD, March 21, 2010: Literary figures and poets from Chitral have demanded that the government should take initiatives to protect their language and culture which have long been marginalised due to lack of patronage.
They were speaking at a literary function arranged by the Khyber News television channel in collaboration with the Pakistan Academy of Letters (PAL) here on Saturday.
The speakers said Chitral was a treasure trove of ancient traditions and languages, stressing that out of about 30 languages in the NWFP, 14 were spoken in the Chitral. About 1.2 million people living in Chitral and some parts of Gilgit-Baltistan, besides many more around the world, speak the Khowar language.
The speakers regretted that no steps had ever been taken at the government level for protection and preservation of small languages and cultures in the district, which could help promote national integration and eliminate the sense of deprivation among the marginalised sections of society.
“Many of our ancient traditions particularly folk games, folk stories and practices have disappeared in the recent past and if the trend continued a day would come when we would lose our remaining vestige of the past, including our mother language,” they warned.
They said Chitralis at the individual level and under the umbrella of Anjuman Taraqi-i-Khowar had been working to preserve and protect the language. However, government departments and agencies, including the state-owned electronic media, always ignored Chitral as far as promotion of its cultures and language was concerned.
The speakers demanded that the government should open offices of the PAL and the Pakistan National Council of the Arts (PNCA) in Chitral to promote the cultural heritage, especially at a time when the country was poised to open up to the Central Asian states with the construction of the Lowari Tunnel.
They also demanded setting up of a university in the valley and publication of a Khowar dictionary.
“The CDA should also name at least two roads after legendary Chitrali poets and writers Mohammad Shakoor and Baba Mohammad Siyar,” they added.