The Vice Chancellor University of Azad Jammu and Kashmir Professor Dr. Muhammad Kaleem Abbasi has said that the centuries-old history, civilization, and culture of the region should be preserved and passed on to the next generations by preserving the Kashmiri vernaculars.
He was addressing the Opening Ceremony of Capacity Building Training Program in Language Documentation for faculty of public sector universities of AJK and Gilgit Baltistan here on Monday. The project aiming to train faculty members of universities for collection, processing and archiving data of endangered languages is funded by the United States government and administered by United States Education Foundation in Pakistan (USEFP).
The Vice Chancellor announced that the UAJK will launch diploma courses for the preservation and promotion of Kashmiri language and culture and will take all possible steps to save other regional languages from extinction. “When a tongue perishes, it erases with it all the treasures of culture, civilization, and historical events associated with it”, he added. Dr. Abbasi congratulated the Department of English for initiating this important training program to enhance the capacity of the faculty to document the regional language for the academics of public sector universities in Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan.
