NCELL-21 held at SU calls for giving significance to all indigenous languages spoken in Pakistan

The 3rd National Conference on English Language and Literature-2021 (NCELL-21) was organized by the Institute of English Language and Literature (IELL), University of Sindh Jamshoro, which was inaugurated by Vice-Chancellor Professor (Meritorious) Dr. Muhammad Siddique Kalhoro in the Shaikh Ayaz Auditorium, Arts Faculty Building here on Wednesday.

The conference was attended by English language experts, researchers and professors from different universities of the country including Lahore, Quetta, Islamabad, Jamshoro, Nawabshah, Karachi and other cities. Some scholars from Germany, Norway and Costa Rica participated and presented their research online in the conference.

Addressing the conference, SU Vice-Chancellor Professor (Meritorious) Dr Muhammad Siddique Kalhoro said that holding of conferences was beneficial for students, scholars, and researchers equally and when it came to a national conference on English language and literature, it was uniformly valuable and significant for the scholars of every field.

“The importance of the English language in today's world cannot be denied; it’s actually a modern weapon that can be used to eradicate the menace of poverty and terrorism from the society”, he said.

He said that there were 35 faculty members in the Institute of English Language and Literature, out of which over 22 had earned their PhD degrees from the United Kingdom, USA and other countries.

He claimed that there were more qualified teachers in the English department of the University of Sindh than in the English department of Karachi University or any other major university in the country.

Dr. Kalhoro further said that as many as 250 scholars were engaged in conducting their research in IELL alone, whose research topics had been approved and they were in the research phase in the fields of English language and literature.

“This is a big number of scholars conducting research in linguistics and literature. Besides this, many are doing their coursework in M.Phil & PhD”, he established.

He said that the government had asked all the universities to ensure maximum participation of students in positive academic and research activities. “That is why we volunteered our own students during the entrance test to ensure their participation in the academic process and help them build their confidence”, the Vice-Chancellor said.

He further said that the recommendations of today's conference will be sent to various teaching departments of SU, other universities and government of Sindh so that the same might be implemented in letter and spirit and the students of other Faculties might benefit from them.

Dr. Kalhoro said that the research papers and theses of the Faculty of Natural Sciences, Law, Education, Commerce & Business Administration and Social Sciences were written in English only; consequently, the 3rd national conference on language & literature was of equal importance to all the fields.

In his keynote speech, the Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences, Media Studies & Art and Design, Lahore College of Economics and the English Language Specialist Dr. Shahid Siddiqui said that a language was not only a means of communication, but also related to politics and power.

He said that the importance of language and literature must be understood. “We should all be proud of our local languages,” he said and added that more than 68 languages were spoken in Pakistan, which were required to be given due weight and significance.

He said that no language was small or big and the lingoes in Pakistan were not being given the required importance at the government level.

Dr. Siddiqui further said that the literature created in any language was not just for entertainment and amusement but it had a profound effect on politics and power even more than language.

He said that there were 68 languages in Pakistan and all of them including Urdu needed to be promoted, in which the role of the government was important.

On this occasion, the Director of the Institute of English Language and Literature, Dr. Tariq Hassan Umrani said that it was not an easy task to hold a conference but the joint wisdom of all the faculty members and students made it possible.

He thanked the Vice-Chancellor Prof. Dr Muhammad Siddique Kalhoro for the financial support and encouragement which he said helped them make it a success.

Conference Secretary Dr. Ghazal Shaikh briefed the audience on the aims and objectives of the conference in detail and thanked all those who put their share in any means.

Dean Faculty of Arts Dr. Syed Javed Iqbal, Dean Faculty of Engineering and Technology Dr. Khalil-ur-Rehman Khumbati, Prof. Dr. Muhammad Khan Sangi, Dr. Farida Panhwar, Saqib Bariro, Saira Niaz Chandio, Bakhtawar Jalil, Almas Memon, Dr. Abdul Hameed Panhwar. Dr. Sumera Umrani, Marvi Shaikh, Shafqat Qadri, Ms. Hajra, Dr. Komal Faraz, Dr. Waseem Hussain, Muhammad Khan Nizamani, Dr. Sanaullah Ansari, Uzma Shirazi, Dr. Ishrat Ranjhani, Dr. Ellahi Bakhsh Gopang, Mehtab Khaskheli, Dr. Abdul Fattah Soomro, Rida Saeed, Dr. Arfana Mallah, Jam Khan Muhammad and others attended the conference.

Later various sessions of the conference were held at IELL wherein Prof. Dr. Asadullah Lark, Dr. Fouzia Shamim of Karachi University, Dr. Bushra Ahmad Khurram, Dr. Niaz Hussain Soomro from Quetta University, Dr. Muhammad Kamal Khan, Dr. Naimatullah Shah, Prof. Rozi Ilyas and others presented their research papers during different sessions while Dr. Ovi Kuchler from Germany, Dr. Zoltan Varga from Norway, Dr. Veronica Garsha Castro from Costa Rica and others presented their papers online.