Nasir Ali
Undoubtedly, a language is the source of communication, education, and progress of any nation throughout the world and a source for the identification of that relevant nation but when the language or culture of any nation is not preserved then eventually the language or the nation is declared to be dead.
Similarly, I live in such a province which is blessed with uncountable natural resources but neither its language nor culture is fully paid heed, namely the Poor, Balochistan province of Pakistan.
It is very hard to estimate the total number of speakers of Balochi language, especially since the central government does not generally stress ethnic identity in census reports, but statistics available give at hand that at least between five and eight million Baloch speak the language.
in fact, In Pakistan, the Balochi language has the lowest number of speakers which are 3 percent of the total population.
Various talks were held and resolutions were passed for saving the Balochi language but in vain.
A few years back in 2011, to save languages, Pakistan Academy of Letters (PAL) took an initiative to give equal importance to all languages of Pakistan and a comprehensive program had been formulated in this regard.
Chairman PAL, Fakhar Zaman said,” all the languages spoken in Pakistan are the national languages of Pakistan and Urdu besides being a national language is the official and Lingua of Franca of the country.
All the languages of the country are Pakistani languages and we should strive to make the mother languages as part of the curriculum on the primary level.”
But as far as I am aware, I don’t see any reforms because I vividly remember the day when we were taught Balochi language in Grade 1 but from that class onwards, neither we were taught Balochi in our school nor we were allowed to be taught Balochi.
A Balochi teacher from the Kolahoo
Government Boys Model School told me that neither his students nor their parents treat him honorably, they say:” Of what use is Balochi to us?”
We Baloch are still hopeful that our Balochi culture and language will be promoted through some initiatives by the federal government so that no longer the Balochi language remain backward.
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