National language

Letter October 06, 2016
Lawmakers must think about all aspects of something before making a change

TURBAT: Recently, the Sindh Assembly adopted a resolution to declare Sindhi a national language and the Pakistan Muslim League-Functional (PML-F) MPA Nand Kumar, too, moved a resolution requesting to declare Sindhi a national language of Pakistan. He was optimistic about the prospect of students across Pakistan being able to take Sindhi as an optional subject as part of their curriculum once Sindhi is declared a national language.

However, declaring Sindhi a national language will cause many problems since people across Pakistan, such as citizens from Balochistan, cannot speak Sindhi. Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah declared Urdu the national language. Taking Sindhi as an optional subject in the syllabus may be difficult for students of Balochistan since it is easier to learn Urdu as a second language than Sindhi. I can vouch for this, being Balochi and a student myself. Thus, lawmakers must think about all aspects of something before making a change. They must not be in a hurry to make such a big decision, which will affect thousands of people, especially students across Pakistan.

Mahnoor Mustafa

Published in The Express Tribune, October 7th, 2016.

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