Iran-Pakistan cultural cooperation

Prominent Urdu poet, scholar and a visiting Professor of Urdu and Hindi at National University of Modern Languages (NUML) Iftikhar Arif told the Islamic republic news agency that under the agreement both countries will benefit each other with the ongoing research in culture and language. "When I was President of the national language authority, I had signed an agreement with the Director of the Iranian Academy of Persian Language and Literature Gholam-Ali Haddad Adel to enhance bilateral cooperation in culture. "That agreement was approved by the governments of both countries and soon Iran and Pakistan will formally sign the agreement," he said. Iftikhar Arif expressing his views said the relationship between Iran and Pakistan is strong at the government to government and people to people level. "The affection between the people of Iran and Pakistan is unprecedented," he viewed. The scholar added people of Pakistan love Iran and they are well wisher of Iran. He said there is no distance between Iran and Pakistan. The intellectual said governments and people in both countries are following the tradition of cooperation and brotherhood. "Iran and Pakistan are supporting each other on all issues," said the scholar. Iftikhar Arif said the literature of Pakistan has the influence of the Persian language and the wisdom came to Pakistan from Iran. "In fact awareness reached the sub-continent thorough Persian the language," he added. He said Persian had been the official language of his region for many years. He regretted that because of the influence of the English language the people of the sub-continent are going away from their roots. Iftikhar Arif pointed out that major work of philosopher, poet Dr. Allama Mohammad Iqbal is in the Persian language and "we cannot understand him properly without learning Persian". He strongly believed that the major aim of colonialism was to hit the historical tradition of the Muslims of India. "But now it is widely believed that by learning the Persian language we will return to our roots," viewed the intellectual.