Pakistan

Public, private varsities told to adopt Urdu as official language

HEC asks all higher education institutions of the country to implement the order by September 15

Ammar Sheikh September 05, 2015

PHOTO: FILE

LAHORE: The federal government on Saturday instructed all public and private sector universities to use Urdu as the official language in all correspondence.

The instruction were passed through Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training and the Higher Education Commission (HEC) which direct varsities to translate their respective acts, statutes, and websites into Urdu.

The HEC has directed all higher education institutions in the country to implement the order by September 15.

Read: Pakistan to replace English with Urdu as official language

The HEC circular, which kept in spirit with the new directions was written in Urdu, read, “As per the Article 251 of the Constitution of Pakistan, the national language of Pakistan is Urdu, and arrangements shall be made for it being used for official and other purposes. For the purpose, the prime minister of Pakistan has approved a framework. The recipients are directed to take appropriate measure for the implementation of the framework.”

The approved framework attached with the circular states that the public and semi-private departments under the federal government are directed to translate and publish their policies in Urdu within three months.

The framework has also directed government departments to publish their rules and regulations, and provide their forms in Urdu as well as in English language.

Read: President, prime minister to deliver speeches only in Urdu, even on foreign trips

Furthermore, the framework stated that all international and local speeches made by the president and prime minister will also be in Urdu language.

COMMENTS (9)

anwa | 9 years ago | Reply @Adeel: i fully agree with you ..English is an important tool, a modern weapon that we must have if not for any other purpose at least for our self defense and it should be learnt to the extent it is required to keep pace with the world to have an excess to the depth of the knowledge as well an excess to the world markets. it can be learnt in a manner one learns German or French to get admission into relative Universities but in our society unfortunately it is learnt as symbol of status treating the national and regional languages and cultures as degraded and inferior which is a shameful and should be shunned as such..

sajjad nangiana | 9 years ago | Reply Nice step to bring uniformly in language through out Pakistani citizens who are divide on the bases of language

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khawar | 9 years ago | Reply How much will be lost in translation?

vicktor d'souza | 9 years ago | Reply We say make Kashmiri the official language of Pakistan; then our case of Kashmir being an integral part of Pakistan becomes all the more stronger ! What say you, gentlefolk?

Adeel | 9 years ago | Reply I don't know what problem are they trying to solve. English is the language of progress, while the world moves towards embracing it at higher education level, we are distancing ourselves from it. I think this is the another step towards disconnecting us from global intellect. In European Union, countries such as greece are falling behind because they such disconnect in universities. There are almost no english language programs at higher level their. Japan solves this problem with enormous budget for translations. And even they understand now that they have to connect with world and are now developing english language programs. Even though my favorite literature is in urdu language, I do believe it serves no useful purpose within higher education institutes, specially within scientific education.

anwar | 9 years ago | Reply @Logitech:I agree with you in principal but what about Hindi as official language of India?By the way Urduis in no more the so called mother tongue of 7 percent..as they have abandoned Urdu for being an orphan and their children who go to English medium schools ask their parents to tell things in English to them.Urdu is going to be an official language now because it is now language of the Punjabis who prefer to speak with their children in Urdu..So spsrt from being the language of 60 percent now it is also the peoples language of Pakistan as Most of channels which are popular country wide are Urdu Channels ...and even a common man in remoter and tribal areas tries to speak in Urdu when interviewed,.but the million dollar question is that whether even Urdu will be able to survive the onslaught of English the world wide market language??????

Logitech | 9 years ago | Reply Urdu is the mother tongue of only about 5-7% of Pakistanis. If nations progress by respecting their own cultures, customs and identities then the imposition of Urdu on us Punjabis, Pashtuns, Baloch and Sindhis is just as bad as the imposition of English. Urdu and English are foreign languages to us. So the new parka likha jahil will be the paindu Punjabi , pagan Pathan, jahil Sindhi and jangli Baloch who will not be as conversant in Urdu as Karachiites and Lahoris.

JSM | 9 years ago | Reply Is Urdu also not a foreign language? It is not the language of provinces that make Pakistan.

Waris | 9 years ago | Reply A very nice initiative taken by the GOP, nations progress better by respecting their own cultures, customs and identities. Now the 'Parhe likhe Jahils' will not differentiate between a literate and an illiterate person by his/her English speaking/understanding skills.

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