Talking to journalists after inaugurating the fifth Saraiki Ajrak Festival held here at Multan Arts Council, the former premier said the government should celebrate Saraiki Ajrak day officially like Sindhi Ajrak day where the PPP government fully patronises cultural activities and events. He said the PPP celebrates Saraiki Ajrak day at public level when the Saraiki province would be constituted. He greeted all the people in Saraiki region on Ajrak day. He said the blue colored Saraiki Ajrak reflects colors of Saraiki rich culture. He prayed for early creation of province for Saraiki people.The former Prime Minister appealed people not to be hoodwinked with the misleading slogans of candidates and they should exercise their right of vote in favour of such political parties which advocate for the creation of separate province.
Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani said the next general elections would be held in time according to the schedule. He said Bilawal Bhutto Zardari would soon visit south Punjab including Multan.
Rejecting charges against PPP on managing horse-trading in Senate elections, he said if the PPP had been involved in horse-trading then the party elected Senators from Punjab. On the other hand, Pakistan Tehreek Insaaf captured a Senate slot from Punjab in spite of PTI minority.
“If we had horse trading, we would be able to get out of the line”, he said.
Responding to a query on Imran Khan’s announcement of contesting the next general election from one of the constituencies from Karachi, he said Imran Khan has a right to contest election from any constituency across the country.
Youth was performing Saraiki Jhumar on drumbeats to demonstrate living demo of happiness.
The 5th Saraiki Ajrak festival organizer Zahoor Dhareja said the Ajrak has become a symbol of Saraiki culture and tradition. Ajrak is a name given to a unique form of block printed shawls and tiles found in the Saraiki belt. These shawls display special designs and patterns made using block printing by stamps. Common colors used while making these patterns may include but are not limited to blue, red, black, yellow and green۔ Dark blue color is the dominated one in the saraiki culture. Saraiki Ajrak is dark blue. The blue color makes it distinctive among other Ajraks. Saraiki nationalists designed the Saraiki Ajrak.
Prof Shaukat Mughal expressed pathos that Punjab government was not patronizing the Saraiki Ajrak festival compared to Sindh. He said the vfestival has become the symbol of promotion of Saraiki culture and traditions. He said the festival provides an opportunity to writers, poets and literary circles to flourish regional culture and reopen debates on growing problems.
Prof Shaukat Mughal said the Saraiki movement is the combination of language planning and efforts to establish a collective identity to convince the Saraikis and others of the status of Saraiki as a separate language distinct from Punjabi.
It also aimed to establish Saraikis as a separate nationality by invoking shared awareness of the local past among the people living in different cities and towns of the Saraiki region speaking different dialects of the Saraiki language Consensus on the name Saraiki for all the dialects spoken in the Saraiki region was a part of this reaction, he added.
Saraiki nationalist Abida Bokhari expressed her jubilation and said the day revived their struggle for the creation of Saraiki province. She said the Saraiki political matured in Zia martial law when no political activity was allowed. She said the Saraiki movement is the result of political struggle against dictatorships. She said the Saraiki Ajrak was getting popularity among people and they were adopting it as the symbol of their nationalist struggle.
Saraikistan Quammi Ithaad chairman Khawaja Ghulam Farid Koreja demanded promotion of Saraiki language at primary level.
He pointed out two major aims of the Saraiki movement including to assert the language’s separate identity and to secure for its increased official recognition’. One important objective was to establish Saraikis as a group and to create an awareness of a collective sense of identity among them. Initially the emphasis of the writers was to prove the language’s antiquity and determine its status as a distinct language and not a dialect of Punjabi.
Tags:
POLITICS