Speakers seek official status for regional languages

linguists, intellectuals and nationalist leaders call for national commission on languages, constitutional amendments

ISLAMABAD:

Criticising the state’s ‘indifference’ to sub-nationalities of the country and their languages, linguists, intellectuals and nationalist leaders reiterated their longstanding demand to declare regional languages and dialects as national languages.

The speakers expressed these views at a conference titled ‘Language Plurality and Reconciliation in Pakistan’, held by the Siraiki Lok Saanjh in collaboration with Awami National Party (ANP), Awami Jamhoori Party and Siraiki Journalists Saanjh.

The conference called for establishing a national commission on languages and demanded an amendment to the constitution, the adoption of mother tongue as a medium of Instruction, and a free and fair census.

The participants criticised the ‘state’s unitary linguistic nationalism’ which according to them deprived various cultures and languages of the country.

ANP leader and former provincial minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain spoke at the conference as a keynote speaker.

While stressing the urgent need for the state to recognise linguistic pluralism, Mian Iftikhar Hussain referred to the case of Saraiki whose existence he said was a result of the hard work of activists who strived to preserve it.

Dr Ahsan Wagha stated that the narrative of lingua franca used by the state to create a hegemonic space for Urdu was a myth.

He apprised the participants that there are three pillars on which the structure of a language stood.

He contended that ordinary speakers of languages never prioritise grammatical precision over practical communication. Hence, he said, they learn and use language intelligibly.

Jami Chandio, a representative of civil society from Sindh and an expert on federalism, underlined the need for the recognition of regional languages by the Pakistani state. He emphasised that wider linguistic and cultural recognition is the essence of federalism.

Khan Zaman Kakar, central secretary for youth at the ANP, contended that the singular nationalism of the Pakistani state and its imposition of Urdu as a hegemonic structure on other nationalities is anti-human.

Meanwhile, Mushtaq Gaadi of the Quaid-i-Azam University stressed the establishment of a language commission which he said was an unfinished agenda of the 18th Constitutional Amendment.

Others who spoke on the occasion included Prof Wahid Bakhsh Buzdar, Advocate Salahuddin Mengal, Senator Haji Hidayat Ullah of the ANP, Zubair Torwali, Gul Rahman Hamdard Zaman Sagar, Irshad Laghari, Asad Jutah and Mazhar Nawaz.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 20^th, 2023.