According to Inayat Ullah Faizi, a Pakistani historian and researcher, the Chitral valley is home to 14 local languages, the most popular being Khowar. So it hardly comes as a surprise that 47-year-old Rehmat Aziz Khan, a Chitrali PhD student thought of designing a software that allows a computer keyboard to type 40 diffeænt local languages of Pakistan.

KhanhasaMaster`sdegreeinlibraryscience,is currently enrolled in PhD in Law at the University of Islamabad, and holds a one-year diploma in computer software and programming languages.

`The application is compatible with Microsoft Word, Notepad and WordPad, and there is no need to download any specific software to use the Khowar Keyboani.

Khan is a poet, linguist and æseaæher known not only in Chitral district of KhyberPakhtunkhwa (KP) but also in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) for his contribution to the local languages.

Khowar, his mother tongue is spoken and understood by the local community of Chitral and others in GB.

He would often feel bad that his mother tongue could not be composed on the computer, and he had always wanted to develop a software compatible with the windows operating system that had the capability to compose Khowar and other local languages.

`I wanted to write poetry, prose and the history of my hometown in Khowar and my dream has come true. Now, anyone can easily compose literary material, poetry, prose, dramas, novels and criticism in several languages on the computer,`he says.

Preoccupied with developing his software, Khan could not give much time to day-today tasks. `All my time and energy went intodeveloping the keyboani,` he says. `The Khowar keyboard softwaie that I developed in 2014 can be used to type Shina, Balti, Pashto, Kohistani, Damairi, Gojari, Dari, Ormuri, Yalolah, Hindko, Potohari, Torwali as well,` Khan explains. `The softwaiehas been uploaded on the website (www.

branah.com) and one can use it with any onlinary keyboard. If the software is bookmarked as a favourite in any bmwser, it can be used without connecting to the net,`he adds.

Khan worked daily for two to three hours to develop the latest version of the keyboard. In the current version, one can write 40 various local languages ofPakistanwhile theupgraded version, on which he is working will have the capacity to compose all 69 local languages of the country Earlier, Khan had designed a keyboani just for Khowar. It took him abnost two years to develop the keyboani software in the Java pmgramming language and Keyman Developer, a tool for developing keyboani layouts.

`Since the Khowar language has somespecial characters and alphabets that other typing softwaæs, including Inpage [Unlu typing softwaæ] cannot support, it could only be done by developing a unique keyboani softwaæ for Khowar,`he explains.

Khan has won numemus awards during his caæer including the Shandoor Awani, the Chitral Human Development Award, the Pride of the Nation Awani and the Dr A.Q. Khan Award for cæating the specialised softwaæ.

CHALLENGES Khan says that while developing the softwaæ he faced many haniships. Since he was not computer literate he had to learn computer pmgramming languages and other ælevant softwaæs used in keyboani development. He said that power outage and time shoitage was also a big issue but he never gaveup and finally achieved success inhis pioject.

`First I developed the softwaæ for desktop and later I develop andmid apps for cell phones.

With a single click a person can install the appon a mobile phone and use it like a desktop computer,` he explains. He also says that ægular work on the computer has affected his eyesight.

FULL TIME SERVICE Along with establishing departments within Allama Iqbal Open University and Karachi`s Unlu University, Khan has initiated courses in the Khowar language from first to 12th grade in schools in the Chitral district.

Khan`s softwaæenables people to typeresearch work in the above mentioned institutions. With the help of his keyboard software, Khan has also written more than ahundæd scholarly articles, 50 book reviews, and 1,400 editorials and columns for diffeænt Pakistani newspapers.

`I have started to translate the Holy Quran in Khowar on the computer,` says Khan. `Those who cannot æad Pashto and Unlu will be able to study translations of the Quran in the Chitrali language. People of other ægions can use the keyboard to translate the Holy Quran and otherbooks in their local languages as well.

Along with working on his PhD thesis, Khan has 1ecently written a book, Muhammad, about the life of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and then composed it in Khowar with the help of his keyboard softwaie.

FUTURE PLANS As his softwaie is compatible with windows 8.1 and higher vendons of the Micmsoft operating system, Khan plans to develop it fuither and upload the latest vendon onhis website. His softwaie canbe accessed at wwwbranah.com/khowar. `The new vendonofthesoftwaiewillextendits capacitytotype out about 69 languages that aie spoken in various paits of Pakistan. The next step would be to include all the languages spokenin the world,` says Khan.

He would like the pmvincial government of KP and the federal government to acknowledge his work and pmvide financial and technological support to him for carrying out futher development on the software.