Writers, scholars demand status of official language for Urdu

Urdu does not undermine regional languages, say linguists

KARACHI: Linguists, writers, poets and teachers of Urdu language urged upon the public to demand that the power corridors implement Urdu as the official language of Pakistan on Thursday.

The distinguished writers and scholars came together at the Arts Auditorium of Karachi University (KU) to discuss the right steps that are needed to be taken in order to ensure smooth transition of the official language of Pakistan from English to Urdu without denying the rightful place of regional languages and not letting English take a complete back seat.



Speaking on the occasion, Rauf Parekh, a linguist and teacher, said, "Urdu is our national language, which needs to be our official language as well. This was clearly stated in the Constitution of 1973." He lamented the fact that the institute that was supposed to ensure that Urdu gets its rightful official language status within 15 years after the passage of the 1973 Constitution, it itself took six years to be founded.

Parekh demanded that the exams for Civil Superior Services (CSS) of Pakistan be taken in Urdu. He shared that 77 different languages are spoken in Pakistan but 95% population is able to understand Urdu.

Researcher Aqeel Abbas Jafri expressed concern over the fact that the power circles are not seemingly ready to accept Urdu as the official language of Pakistan.



KU Vice-Chancellor Muhammad Ajmal Khan was of the view that children should get primary education in their mother tongues. He bemoaned that the current generation cannot appreciate books like Bagh-o-Bahar. "We have failed to communicate with our youngsters in Urdu," he said sorrowfully, adding that we cannot give due respect to our national language without teaching it to our younger generation.

Haroon Rashid, a teacher of Urdu language, said Urdu had borrowed immensely from various other languages. He also called for taking steps for the promotion of other languages of Pakistan.

Poet and scholar Fatima Hasan remarked, "Seventy years have passed since the creation of Pakistan but we are still raising the issue of Urdu language. We got this country on a linguistic cause and we lost a part of our country in the same cause." She brought forward the point that many of the great writers and poets of Urdu in recent decades have been those whose mother tongue was not Urdu such as Faiz Ahmed Faiz and Mushtaq Ahmed Yusufi, who are considered among the greatest Urdu poets and prose writers, respectively.



"We need to speak in Urdu because we were certainly not born in China or Japan," Rais Alvi, a professor, remarked, adding that many enemies of Urdu are there in the ruling class of the country.

Iftikhar Arif, a renowned Urdu poet and director-general of National Language Promotion Department, said, "If we respect our mothers, then we need to respect our mother tongues as well." He also stressed the importance of the English language in today's world as without sound knowledge of English, one is unable to see how things are developing in the global world. He was of the view that regional languages and their history should be taught in Pakistan but all the regional languages cannot be termed as the official languages of the state.

Arif said he was unhappy with the fact that the CSS exams are taken in English instead of Urdu. He suggested that the CSS exams should be taken in Urdu so that candidates from even Loralai and Pishin are able to compete and contest in it. He further said that despite its multiple dialects, Pakistanis must try to speak in Urdu just like people living on either side of River Thames in England speak English, though in diverse dialects.