Moot highlights importance of Persian language

Minister for Federal Education and Professional Training, Engineer Baligh-ur-Rehman has said that learning multiple languages casts positive impact on critical and analytical thinking and enriches the canvas of thought. Rehman said this while speaking at a concluding ceremony of two-day national conference on importance of Persian language.
The conference was organized by the Higher Education Commission (HEC) here at its secretariat that was held in collaboration with the Cultural Consulate, Embassy of Iran, National University of Modern Languages (NUML), Islamic Culture and Relations Organization and Iran-Pakistan Institute of Persian Studies.
Addressing the conference, the minister shed light on the significance of Persian language with regard to promotion of cultural harmony. He said that Persian possesses vital status in regional as well as religious perspectives, adding that this language preserves a huge treasure of knowledge and wisdom.
He said that Pakistan accords great importance to its relations with Iran, as the two countries enjoy historic, religious and cultural bonds. "The bilateral relations demand emphasis on promotion of Persian," he stressed. Appreciating UNESCO for launching Avicenna Prize for Ethics in Science, the minister said such initiatives encourage literati and scholars to excel in the fields of their interest and come up with productive work.
He informed the audience that the government has set up a National Curriculum Council, which is developing curricula for various levels. "The curricula focuses on character building of students apart from enhancing their academic skills," he concluded. In his remarks, Chairman HEC Dr Mukhtar Ahmed stressed the need for reading history to know how the ancestors of muslims spread knowledge across the world through their research and theoretical findings.
"Today, we need to learn from our history and strive to revive it," he emphasized. "It is high time to understand the ideology of our forefathers by learning their languages which we have relinquished," he said. He maintained that universities' faculty has a great role to play for encouragement of students taking interest in history and languages like Persian.
He said that the HEC pays great importance to social sciences in view of its significant role in defining the moral and cultural directions of societies. Executive Director HEC Dr Arshad Ali said the importance of languages, especially Persian, cannot be denied, particularly in the developing countries. He assured the participants that the HEC will ensure all possible support to any effort for promotion of Persian in the country.
"We will consider awarding a big number of masters and PhD scholarships to Pakistani students to study in Iranian universities," he said. Consultant HEC Dr Mahmood-ul-Hasan Butt informed the participants that HEC will soon lay foundation of Council for Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. He said that Pakistan, Turkey and Malaysia have decided to start a student exchange program and award fully-funded scholarships to muslim students.
Dr Iqbal Saqib presented the communiqué agreed upon by the conference participants. The communiqué emphasized joint endeavors to promote the Persian language and use it as a tool to further strengthen relations between Pakistan and Iran. It also stressed the need for academic measures to facilitate Persian students and scholars. It termed the government patronage to joint research on Persian a need of the hour.
It urged the Persian teachers to extend their services for promotion of academic relations between the two countries. At the end, Saadi-Iqbal Awards 2017 were distributed among the teachers of the Persian language who devoted their lives to the promotion of this language. The awardees included Dr Arif Noshahi, Dr Mehr Noor Muhammad Khan, Zakia, Dr Rabia Kiyani, Bint-ul-Huda, and Dr Hakim Dastari.
On this occasion, Mehdi Honardoost, Ambassador of Iran to Pakistan; Shahaboddin Daraei, Cultural Consular Iranian Embassy; Jononov Sherali, Ambassador of Tajikistan to Pakistan; Iftikhar Arif and other notables also expressed their views on the importance of the Persian language. They also paid tribute to Allama Iqbal and Sheikh Saadi for producing remarkable Persian literature which is a worthwhile source of guidance for the entire Muslim Ummah.