Islamabad : A seven member delegation of scholars, writers and intellectuals of Dhivehi Language Academy, Maldives, lead by Ashraf Ali, President of Dhivehi Language Academy visited Pakistan Academy of Letters (PAL) on Friday and discussed proposed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for promotion of language, literature of both countries through translation of literary books, holding of seminars and exchange of writer’s delegation to each other country. Delegation includes Ashraf Ali, President of Dhivehi Language Academy, Naseema Ahmed, Director General, Shahma Ali, Assistant Director (History), MohamadFauzan Ahmed, Assistant Director, Ashraf Abdul Raheem, Writer/Scholar, Ahmed Nadeem, IT Consultant and Anas Mohamed.
During the briefing on working and objectives of Dhivehi Language Academy, the leader of the delegation expressed his pleasure for warm welcome, given by the Director General PAL Dr. Rashid Hameed and officials of PAL. He briefed about history, transcript of Dhivehi Language. There is only one language in Maldives with a slight difference of dialect and this significance of the Dhivehi language is very helpful for its promotion, he added. He also informed the participants about the effort being made by their Academy and Government to develop the Dhivehi Language and its synchronization in line with modern information technology. He desired cooperation of concerned institutions and universities of Pakistan in this regard. He particularly mentioned the wide popularity and readership of PAL’s literary Urdu journal “Adbiyat” in Maldives.
The Pakistan Academy of Letters arranged a meeting/discussion with the language experts, writers and scholars including IftikharArif, Director General National Language Promotion Department, Dr. InamulHaqJaveid, Managing Director National Book Foundation, Dr. Rashid Hameed, Director General PAL and numbers of writers and scholars. The participants discussed about the understanding of Urdu language corpus and get benefited from the comprehensive corpus of Urdu language and various aspects of proposed agreement between Pakistan Academy of Letters and Dhivehi Language Authority (DLA) Maldives.
Speaking on the occasion, Iftikhar Arif said that writers and scholars belong to the same family. He said that all the languages are same and anything being written in any language part of literature. He said that the first grammar of the world was from this part of world and we have rich and tremendous linguistic stock.
Director General PAL Dr. Rashid Hameed briefed the delegation about history, functions, objectives and achievements of PAL for promotion of literature and literary activities by PAL all over the country in all Pakistani languages. He said that an MoU between DLA and PAL would lead to further strengthen ties between two countries particularly in the field of literature of both the countries through translation, holding of seminars and exchange of writer’s delegation.
