Sindhi Language Authority
The Sindhi Language Authority (SLA) (Sindhi: سنڌي ٻولي جو با اختيار ادارو) is an autonomous body under the administrative control of the Culture, Tourism and Antiquities Department[1] of the Government of Sindh province in Pakistan. The SLA was established under the act Use of Sindhi Language Act 1972, and the Teaching, Promotion and Use of Sindhi Language (Amendment) Act, 1990 of the Government of Sindh.[2][3][4] There is a Board of Governors to frame the policies for achieving the aims and objectives of authority and ensure their implementation. The first Board of Governors was constituted under the chairmanship of Nabi Bux Khan Baloch, a scholar and writer.
Native name | سنڌي ٻوليءَ جو با اختيار ادارو |
---|---|
Type | Autonomous Institute |
Founded | 1992 |
Founder | Dr. Nabi Bux Khan Baloch |
Headquarters | N-5, National Highway,, , |
Area served | Standardization and promotion of Sindhi language |
Products | Books, Research, Applications |
Owner | Government of Sindh |
Number of employees | 97 |
Website | http://www.sindhila.org |
Since the establishment of the Sindhi Language Authority, different scholars and writers were appointed as its chairman, who have contributed to the development and promotion of the Sindhi language.[5]
Objectives
SLA considers ways and means for the promotion, teaching and use of Sindhi. Moreover, it maintains and reinforce the status of the Sindhi language at all levels[6] in the official and semi-official records. SLA also ensures the correct use of Sindhi language in official records, manuals, publications, text books,[7] newspapers, television and radio, periodic publications and other permanent documents.
Organization
Sindhi Language Authority’s organizational structure consists of seven sections for achieving its objectives which are: Publication & Research Section which deals all kinds of books publication, research journals and magazines, Program Sections which arranges day to day planned programs, dramas linguistic seminars and symposiums, Encyclopedia Sindhiana[8] which has vital team of researchers who collects data from all over the Sindh and compile it in alphabetically order and publish it in series of the Encyclopedia, Dictionary Section[9] deals the etymology and compilation of the Sindhi Language thesaurus, Language Development Project section[10] (Planning & development) arranges the helping seminars and add-on sittings with Literary and academics departments under the umbrella of Government of Sindh for development & implementing Sindhi Language in institutions, Muhammad Ibrahim Joyo Audio & Video Studio where multimedia programs, interviews and tradition folk literary people of Sindh shares their creative skills poetry and Sindhi Folk wisdom and Sindhi Informatics section develops web portals of Sindhi Literature & Sindhi programming of digitization in Sindhi Computing.
Activities
The major thrust of the Authority’s activities has been focused on three fronts, Publication,[11] Programs and Sindhi Computing.
On the publication and research front, Encyclopedia Sindhiana,[12] dictionaries,[13] classical Sindhi books,[14] books for children[15] research material on Sindhi language and literature[16] Indus script and Indus civilization etc and other different descriptions have been published. A news report in 2015 suggested numerous significant issues regarding the governance and academic rigour of SLA publications.[17]
The Program side arranges seminars, symposiums, lectures, training workshops and conferences on various subjects relating to the promotion, teaching and use of Sindhi language. Similarly, “Ibrahim Joyo AV Studio” has prepared significant AV material regarding preservation of dialects and sub- dialects of Sindhi language.
Institute of Sindhi Computing is the youngest section of the Authority. Yet it has achieved progress in Sindhi Computing. It has launched several Android based mobile applications.[18] Moreover Sindhi language has been registered on Microsoft cloud and added Sindhi language in core programming of Google. SLA is also the member of Microsoft Partnership Networks. On 21 February 2017, SLA launched first Sindhi Optical character recognition[19] by the Team leader Amar Fayaz Buriro who was continuously working on this project and finally launched its first beta version.[20][21]
The authority established the Sindhi Dictionary Board for the compilation of dictionary.[22]
The Authority wrote letters to the private schools of the province to teach Sindhi language subject in their schools and it also demanded sign boards on the national highways and roads be written in Sindhi.[23][24]
List of SLA chairpersons
Since the establishment of Sindhi Language Authority below mentioned Scholars were appointed as chairman.
S # | Name | From | To |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Nabi Bux Khan Baloch | 15 Feb 1991 | 6 Mar 1994 |
2 | Nawaz Ali Shouq | 6 Mar 1994 | 3 Apr 1995 |
3 | Nabi Bux G. Qazi | 3 Apr 1995 | 17 Nov 1996 |
4 | Mumtaz Mirza ( Additional Charge) | 17 Nov 1996 | 6 Jan 1997 |
5 | Amar Jaleel | 7 Jan 1997 | 5 May 1997 |
6 | Abdul Hameed Memon Sindhi | 6 May 1997 | 22 Jul 1997 |
7 | Ghulam Ali Allana | 22 Jul 1998[25] | 1 Aug 2001 |
8 | Mohammad Qasim Bughio | 1 Aug 2001 | 15 Feb 2005 |
9 | N.D.Jatoi (Additional Charge) | 16 Feb 2005 | 15 Sep 2005 |
10 | Abdul Qadir Junejo | 15 Sep 2005 | 10 May 2008 |
11 | Fahmida Hussain | 28 May 2008[26] | 13 March 2015 |
12 | Aftab Ahmed Memon (Lookafter) | 15 March 2015 | 14 May 2015 |
13 | Sarfaraz Rajar (Temporary) | 15 May 2015 | 14 Oct 2016 |
14 | Dr. Abdul Ghafoor Memon[27] | 14 Oct 2016 | 31 Oct 2018 |
15 | Mr. Akbar Laghari (Additional Charge) | 26 Dec 2018 | 22 Sept 2019 |
16 | Mr. Pervez Ahmed Sehar (Additional Charge) | 22 Sept 2019 | 08 Nov 2019 |
17 | Mr. Akbar Laghari (Additional Charge) | 09 Nov 2019 | 28 July 2020 |
18 | Prof.Dr. Muhammad Ali Manjhi | 28 July 2020 | 04 March 2022 |
19 | Dr. Naseem ul Ghani Sahito (Additional Charge) | 04 March 2022 | 04 August 2022 |
20 | Dr. Ishaq Samejo | 5 Aug 2022 | To date |
References
- "Culture Tourism and Antiquities Department". Archived from the original on 31 March 2016. Retrieved 11 June 2015.
- "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 11 June 2015.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - "Cronyism-hit SLA of little service to Sindhi". Dawn. 24 November 2012. Retrieved 13 July 2016.
- "PAS/Legis-B-5/90 dated 23 December 1990" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 11 June 2015.
- Official site, Official Site (26 December 2018). "Present Chairman of Sindhi Language Authority". Archived from the original on 17 April 2019.
- "Welcome to Dow University of Health Sciences". pdc.duhs.edu.pk.
- "Welcome to the Website of Provincial Assembly of Sindh". www.pas.gov.pk.
- "انسائيڪلوپيڊيا سنڌيانا : (Sindhianaسنڌيانا)". encyclopediasindhiana.org.
- "آن لائين سنڌي ڊڪشنري Online Sindhi Dictionary: Sindhi Language Authority". Archived from the original on 27 June 2015. Retrieved 17 June 2015.
- "Sindhi Language Authority Awards". Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 17 June 2015.
- InpaperMagazine, From (26 December 2010). "Regional Literature: A landmark publication".
- "انسائيڪلوپيڊيا سنڌيانا : (Sindhianaسنڌيانا)". encyclopediasindhiana.org.
- "Dictionaries".
- "Classical Sindhi books".
- "books for children".
- "research material on Sindhi language and literature".
- "People of the books". Dawn. Herald. Retrieved 1 July 2016.
- "Sindhi Language Authority (Sindhi Computing Deptt) - Android Apps on Google Play". play.google.com.
- "Sindhi Optical Character Recognition".
- "Software to convert handwritten Sindhi words into code developed". 23 February 2017.
- "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 5 September 2019. Retrieved 5 September 2019.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - "Plagiarise this: Sindhi Language Authority accused of copy pasting". The Express Tribune. Retrieved 13 July 2016.
- "Local language: SLA demands signboards in Sindhi". The Express Tribune. Retrieved 13 July 2016.
- Hauze, Emily (4 March 2016). "SINDHI LANGUAGE AUTHORITY". Indus Asia Online Journal. Retrieved 13 July 2016.
- "Oxford University Press". www.oup.com.pk. Archived from the original on 6 July 2012.
- "KARACHI: Dr Fehmida appointed SLA chairperson". 5 June 2008.
- "Prof. Abdul Ghafoor Memon selected as Chairman Sindhi Language Authority : AsiaNet-Pakistan". asianetpakistan.com.
External links
Media related to Sindhi Language Authority at Wikimedia Commons