KARACHI: All the prosperous and developed nations of the world are prospering due to their national and mother language. Mother language is a vital element in a child’s growth; a child’s health will be sound if he constantly hears his mother language, experts and educationists expressed their views while addressing at the seminar on The Importance of Language in the Present Era organised by Department of Sindhi, University of Karachi (KU) at their Arts Auditorium. KU Vice Chancellor Professor Dr Muhammad Ajmal Khan said that education provided in one’s mother language also had positive impacts on a child’s mental growth. He said that significance of mother language could not be undermined in this modern age. The main purpose of having International Mother Language Day on February 21 every year was to raise awareness and promote the mother languages of the world. KU Director Shah Abdul Latif Professor Dr Salim Memon said that the significance of Bengali language was undermined in East Pakistan, as five students were martyred during the protest in 1952 including a nine-year-old student adding that the movement continued and Bengali language was finally given the national language status in 1956. Now this movement of promoting mother language was in the whole world. It is the fundamental right of every child to get education in his mother language. He informed that in this regard, Bangladeshi Library Associations and Australian associations for mother languages have initiated to establish a corner of mother languages in libraries. He requested KU VC to establish such a corner in the university’s Mahmood Hussain Library as well. KU Dean of Faculty of Social Sciences Professor Dr Muhammad Ahmed Qadri congratulated the department for organising the seminar and termed such seminars vital for today. KU Department of Sindhi Chairman Dr Rukhman Palari said that the department was serving as a host in this programme and scholars of 10 different languages were here to discuss the importance of their languages. Dr Ramzan Bamri from the Persian department of KU said that if someone wanted to conduct research in Urdu having no knowledge of Persian language, cannot conduct research in Urdu. Persian language was as significant as other languages of the world. “This is a wrong perception that Persian is only spoken in Iran. It is also spoken in Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and many parts of Pakistan including Balochistan and the Northern areas. Published in Daily Times, February 22nd 2018.