FLI printed another book in another indigenous language of northern Pakistan,, Kohistani, also called Indus Kohistani (IK). The launching ceremony of this proverb book, collected and translated into Urdu and English by Talib Jan was held on April 10, 2019 in Islamabad. Talib Jan has been working for the promotion of his native language for more than a decade.   Indus Kohistani is the major language of the west bank of the Indus River.  There are two main dialects of Indus Kohistani – one that is spoken along the Indus River, in settlements such as Seo, Pattan and Jijal. The other is spoken in the Duber and Kandia Valleys, which are more remote.  FLI has been working with this community for a long time and many interventions to develop and promote this language are underway. FLI also support a mother tongue based pre-school system in this community. The printing of proverb book in Indus Kohistani will serve the language and community in long future. 

“I assure FLI and its partners in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) who have devoted their lives to work for the development of indigenous languages of GB my full support and every assistance in the GB Assembly”, this was stated by the opposition leader in GB Legislative Assembly, Capt. (r) Muhammad Shafi while speaking in a seminar FLI held on Feb 21, to mark International Mother Language Day (IMLD 2019) in Gilgit. FLI  decided to observe the IMLD) 2019 in Gilgit so as to gather the speakers of indigenous languages of Gilgit-Baltistan and discuss what they feel for the future of their heritage languages. Mr. Shafi appreciated FLI’s efforts especially to hold the event in the Gilgit city. There are five languages vigorously spoken in GB and the good thing is that the sitting government of GB is pursuing a futuristic plan to develop these languages.  Some good minds in the executive hierarchy of the government have been deputed with the task to include local languages in the schools curriculum. FLI is eagerly waiting for the initiation of this great work by the GB government and it has assured its full technical support to successfully implement the plans of the government. The aim of observing of year’s IMLD was also to reaffirm FLI’s resolve to not only work with the government but also with language communities of the region. All languages were represented in the event. Eight literary people who belonged to Shina, Balti, Khowar, Burushaski and Wakhi languages and one from the academia while two government officials gave presentations on the current status of the language work, the challenges they encounter and opportunities in sight. The event was a great success as it gathered all the genuine language workers at one place and linked them with politicians and government officials. While speaking on the occasion Hasan Hasrat, a literary personality of Balti language thanked FLI for holding the event in Gilgit and said that the event has never been observed by any organization or government in GB.

Click HERE to read the article, published in daily Dawn.

16 people including three women from Khowar language community of Golaghmuli village in district Ghizer, GB gained the ability of writing in their mother tongue in a workshop. FLI held this Writers’ Workshop for Khowar Community in the first week of November 2018 in their village, Golaghmuli. The purpose of the activity was to enable the community people to understand how writing system of a language is standardized. External facilitator Farid A Raza and Sr. Literacy Officer of FLI, Naseem Haider facilitated the training.

FLI’s seven master trainers got the ability to develop maps to be included in their research work on languages. They can now make the maps in accordance with the requirements of their research project detailing the geographic aspects of information and use in their research work. Mr. Qandeel Hussain, a linguist who facilitated this training in FLI office on Nov 28, 2018.