taken from the Jang
World Punjabi conference to be held in London
ISLAMABAD: A three-day World Punjabi Conference (WPC)-2002 will begin from May 17 in London, as decided by World Punjabi Congress held in July 2001.
The conference will be attended by over 300 delegates from 25 counties, including Pakistan, India, the UK, the USA, Canada, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Poland, Holland, France, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, Italy, Russia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Japan, China, Uzbekistan and Turkey. Invitations along with detailed programme will be issued in January, next.
According to a press release of the WPC, the main theory of the moot is Punjabi language, literature, culture and history in the 21st century. Sub-themes include assessment of Punjabi literature being written in various countries – distortions in Punjabi history -Punjab culture in an era of globalisation, Punjabiat – a message of peace at the global level, revisiting Punjabi Sufi writings and heritage, promotion of fine arts in Punjab, foreign languages hegemony over languages of the soil and Punjabi journalism.
A Mushaira and a cultural programme are also included in the conference schedule. The London declaration will be issued at the end of the conference. The WPC has decided to keep up the momentum of global Punjabi movement by holding eight conference within next four years.
Countries which will host International Punjabi moots include UK (May, 2002), India (December 2002), Canada (May 2003), Malaysia (December 2003), Denmark (May 2004), US (December 2004), and Norway (May 2005). Holland, Singapore and Thailand would host moots in the next phase. Pakistan will organise the culminating conference in December 2005 thus ending the first series and entering into the second phase.
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