Efforts afoot to implement Urdu as official language

The Ministry of Planning, Development, and Special Initiatives has said that it is taking practical measures to implement Urdu as an official language in all government departments under Article 251 of the Constitution.

 A statement issued by the ministry stated that the authorities concerned have recently approved a revised PC-I of a project titled “Establishment of National Language Processing Laboratory (NLP-Lab)” for Rs78.

186 million.

 It said the project would expedite the efforts to comply with the Supreme Court’s order passed in 2015 for enforcement of Urdu as an official language.

 The Ministry of National Heritage and Culture Division is the sponsoring agency, while the National Language Promotion Department (NLPD) will execute the project.

 Talking about the ministry’s efforts, NLPD Director General Dr Rashid Hameed, who is associated with the department established in October 1979 to advance and promote the Urdu national language said the core objective of the project is to elevate Urdu to the status of languages with extensive digital data resources.

 Sharing details of the NLPLab, Dr Rashid Hameed explained that the project includes the development of several applications like Machine Translation (MT), Speech Recognition (SR), and Optical Character Recognition (OCR) that would make language learning more accessible, facilitate cross-border communication and commerce, and enable people to access online content.

 He said he believed that only languages that adapt to the latest technology would survive in today’s world.

 “Planning Minister Professor Ahsan Iqbal has been a driving force behind these efforts, with a focus on shifting from manual to digital processes.

” The DG further said last month, the minister established a steering committee consisting of experts from the information technology and private sectors aimed at facilitating the implementation of digital transformation and increasing the country’s export volume.

 APP