ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: Pakistan Special Assistant to Prime Minister on National Affairs Irfan Siddiqui said that promotion of ‘Farsi’ (Persian language) in Pakistan would certainly help further boosting cooperation with Iran.
“Exemplary relations with Iran is the utmost priority of Pakistan government as Pakistan already has very strong bond with the Islamic republic of Iran,” Irfan Siddiqui said In an exclusive interview with IRNA, an Iranian News Agency.
Our literarily heritage is common and Hafez Shirazi, Saadi Shirazi, Jami, Ferdowsi are popular in Pakistan as Iqbal Lahori is quite popular in Iran,” he added.
Pakistan government is trying systematically to build the Persian language and Iranian cultural centers in Pakistan with hope to have such centers in Iran also, he mentioned.
“I have just offered to establish Allama Iqbal Corner in any of the universities which the government of Iran may like and also we want to get good literature from Iran both in poetry and prose, history and other relevant fields to get it translated into Urdu and similarly in other regional languages in Pakistan,” Irfan Siddiqui said.
He said, “We love to have ‘Farsi’ literature and to translate into local languages and similarly we can recommend books ought to be translated into ‘Farsi’ language.”
So the relations in the field of literature, culture, exchange of delegations and exchange of books would certainly build good relations between these two nations and it can go upto our political relations and it would turn into exemplary relations with Iran which is our utmost priority, he said.
He said that there were many institutions in Pakistan like National University of Modern languages from where various students and even elderly persons go and learn ‘Farsi’ language.
Pakistani people who have some links and interest in literature cannot go ahead without learning the ‘Farsi’ language so that is why we are trying to have translations from Persian, he said.
