AMRITSAR: The three- day 34th World Punjabi Conference to be held in Lahore has begun with a call to raise the flag of Punjab , Punjabi and Punjabiyat .
The chief organizer of the conference and former Pakistani minister Fakhar Zaman said in his inaugural address that the Punjabi language is more threatened by its own people than by foreigners , hence such efforts prove to be helpful in awakening the consciousness of Punjabis . He said that due to our efforts in the last 40 years , we have succeeded in bringing Punjabis living all over the world on one platform .
A 65 -member delegation from India entered the country yesterday via the Wagah - Attari border to participate in the conference that began in Lahore . Apart from this , some delegates from different countries have also come .
Dr. Deepak Manmohan Singh , Chairman of the Indian Chapter of the World Punjabi Conference, praised the city of Lahore and said that this city has preserved the Punjabi dialect , culture and language . He paid tribute to the personalities who passed away in the past and then observed a minute 's silence on behalf of the entire delegation .
Eminent poet and Chairman of Punjabi Virasat Lok Akademi Gurbhajan Singh Gill remembered the personalities who contributed to the success of the World Punjabi Conference since its inception , including Sutinder Noor , Harvinder Singh Hanspal , Ajmer Aulakh , Principal Sarwan Singh , Waryam Sandhu .
He especially credited the conference to the leadership of Fakhar Zaman . He said that due to the conference , Gurmukhi books have now started being published in Shahmukhi as well . He mentioned the commonalities of the common Punjab and called for mutual love and goodwill .
He said that such conferences have worked to build bridges of friendship .
Dolly Guleria shared her memories of the city of Lahore with reference to Punjab 's Koyal Surinder Kaur and paid tribute to the great singer by singing the covers of some songs .
Baba Najmi recited his popular compositions proclaiming the Punjabi mother tongue and communal harmony , which received a lot of appreciation . Dr. Sukhdev Sirsa, while reading his paper on Sufism, spoke about the message of mutual love and harmony given by the Sufis .
Coordinator of the Indian Chapter of the World Punjabi Conference, Sehajpreet Singh Mangat , moderated the inaugural session and shed light on the background of the conference.
He gave a brief information about the topic of the session. This time the topic of the conference is Sufism in which various papers will be read and discussions will be held .
On this occasion, the Shahmukhi edition of the books of Gurbhajan Singh Gill , Sehajpreet Singh Mangat , Trailochan Lochi , Navdeep Singh Gill and Jang Bahadur Goyal were released . Mudassar Bhat , Editor-in- Chief of Bhulekha Newspaper , Sugra Sadaf and renowned actress Sunita Dhir were also present on the stage in the presidium .
The delegation includes eminent personalities associated with the fields of literature , art , culture , journalism, as well as former IAS , IPS officers , professors , etc. , who were introduced one by one .
The dignitaries present on the occasion included Babu Razb Ali 's granddaughter Rehana Razb , Darshan Singh Buttar , Dr. Sukhdev Sirsa , Kahan Singh Pannu , Gurpreet Singh Toor , Jang Bahadur Goyal , Amrit Kaur Gill , Dr. Shinderpal Singh , Anita Shabdish , Balkar Singh Sidhu , Khalid Hussain , Harmeet Vidyarthi , Dr. Simrat Kaur , Jagtar Singh Bhullar , Sunil Kataria , Dr. Ratan Singh Dhillon , Sandeep Sharma , Shaida Bano , Dr. Surinder Singh Sangha , Sukhi Brar , Satish Gulati , Sarghi , Raj Dhaliwal , Seema Grewal , Harvinder Singh , Amarjit Kaur Warring , Satinderjit Singh , Jaininder Chauhan , Supriya , Gurpreet Mansa , Dr. Rupinder Kaur , Davinder Dilroop , Gurcharan Kochhar , Harvinder Singh. Tatla , Dr. Sudhir Kaur Mahal , Dr. Gurdeep Kaur , Dr. Gurraj Singh Chahal , Karam Singh Sandhu were included .
Apart from India and Pakistan , the conference was also attended by Ranjit Singh Gill from the US , Parminder Sodhi from Japan , Prabhjot Kaur from Canada , Ruby Dhillon from England and Mintu Brar from Australia .