KARACHI: A large number of people mostly youth, students, and families from Gilgit-Baltistan converged at the Karachi Arts Council on Saturday to witness the first-ever Burushaski conference.
The conference was aimed at deliberating on the uniqueness, history, importance, and ways to preserve the unique but endangered language ‘Burushaski’. The indigenous language is spoken by over 150,000 people in Yasin, Nagar, and Hunza. This was the first-ever event where speakers belonging to all three dialects gathered to show their determination to protect and preserve the unique mountainous language.
Burushaski artists and poets based in Karachi presented melodious and popular folk songs and fusion in the accompaniment of sitar music. While the elders who came from Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) told the folk tales.
Besides music and poetry recitation, there were two-panel discussions as well where experts shed light upon different aspects of the endangered language. The first panel discussion which was moderated by Mr. Basharat Issa deliberated on the Burushaski language and the literature. The experts including linguist Dr. Muhammad Issa, researcher Shahnaz Hunzai, and poet/researcher Burushu Duduk shared their thoughts about the topic.
In the second panel discussion, speakers including Rizwan Qalandar (Researcher and Activist), Minhaj Mousavi (Teacher), and Ali Ahmad Jan (Journalist and Poet) shed light on the Burushaski in the contemporary era.
Following the panel discussions, Zafar Iqbal spoke on the importance of curriculum and mother tongue while Dr. Sadaf Munshi spoke online about Burushaski spoken in Jammu and Kashmir.
The participants of the moot stressed need for organizing such events on regular basis and to make every effort to bring the speakers from all three dialects together to celebrate the diversity of the Burushaski language.
Speaking about the success of the conference, one of the organizers Ali Ahmad Jaan paid gratitude to the guests who came from GB to participate in the event. He said that this was the first time where speakers, artists, and experts belonging to all three dialects of Burushaski sit together to express their love for the indigenous language.
