Pashto Academy () is a language regulatory institution based at the
University of Peshawar in
Peshawar
Peshawar is the capital and List of cities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by population, largest city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It is the sixth most populous city of Pakistan, with a district p ...
,
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (; ; , ; abbr. KP or KPK), formerly known as the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), is a Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Pakistan. Located in the Northern Pakistan, northwestern region of the country, Khyber ...
,
Pakistan
Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...
responsible for the standardisation, advancement, and promotion of the
Pashto language
Pashto ( , ; , ) is an eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family, natively spoken in northwestern Pakistan and southern and eastern Afghanistan. It has official status in Afghanistan and the Pakistani province of Khyb ...
in Pakistan.
It was established in 1955 with the support of the
Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, with
Maulana Abdul Qadir serving as its first director.
It was created following the precedent the
Pashto Tolana in Kabul having been set up in 1937. It is a research and publication institution with a focus on Pashto linguistic development and research. Areas studied and researched by the academy include
Pashtun culture
Culture ( ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and Social norm, norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, Social norm, customs, capabilities, Attitude (psychology), attitudes ...
,
literature
Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...
,
history
History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...
, and the arts.
Activities
Since its inception, the Pashto Academy has produced over 500 publications in Pashto, which include classical texts, modern literature, critical literature, scientific works, translations, Pashto lexicon, research publications, booklets, and journals. The academy maintains a library which is host to a large collection of printed Pashto books, rare texts and manuscripts, media, tapes, and photographs of prominent scholars and poets.
The academy also maintains a museum and art gallery, inaugurated in 2009, depicting Pashtun cultural heritage. A research cell has been set up at the academy which conducts studies on the life and works of
Khushal Khan Khattak, regarded as one of the most notable classical Pashtun poets.
Directors
Past and present directors of the Pashto Academy:
*
Maulana Abdul Qadir
* Mian Syed Rasool Rasa
* Syed Azeem Shah Khyal Bokhari
* Mohammad Nawaz Tahir
* Raj Wali Shah Khattak
*
Salma Shaheen
* Dr. Nasrullah Jan Wazir (Current Director)
See also
*
Academy of Sciences of Afghanistan – Pashto language regulation board in Afghanistan
*
National Language Authority (Urdu) – National regulation board for Urdu
*
Sindhi Language Authority – Sindhi language regulation authority
*
Balochi Academy – Balochi language regulation academy
References
External links
University of Peshawar Departmental Site for Pashto Academy*
*
{{Authority control
1955 establishments in Pakistan
Language regulators
Organisations based in Peshawar
Pashto
University of Peshawar
Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa