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<a id="ctl00_ContentPlaceHolder1_HyperLinkMain" class="headingtext" style="text-decoration:none">A new language policy</a>
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<a id="ctl00_ContentPlaceHolder1_HyperLinkReporter" title="Read all articles / stories Asif Ezdi" class="HyperLinkReporterName" href="http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintWriterName.aspx?ID=9&URL=Asif%20Ezdi" style="font-style:italic">Asif Ezdi<br></a>
<span id="ctl00_ContentPlaceHolder1_lblDate" class="newstext">Monday, July 27, 2015</span>
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<span id="ctl00_ContentPlaceHolder1_lblVersion" class="newstext">From Print Edition</span>
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<img id="ctl00_ContentPlaceHolder1_imgMain" title="A new language policy" src="http://images.thenews.com.pk/27-07-2015/Opinion/7-27-2015_330816_l_akb.jpg" style="height:120px;width:120px;border-width:0px;float:left;padding-right:10px;">
<span id="ctl00_ContentPlaceHolder1_lblNewsDetailMain">On July 10, the
government informed the Supreme Court that it had issued an executive
order for the replacement of English with Urdu as the country’s official
language in stages. The decision had been taken, the court was told, in
fulfilment of the government’s obligation under Article 251 of the
constitution, which makes it mandatory that arrangements should be made
for the use of Urdu for official and other purposes within fifteen years
from 1973. <br><br>The 15-year grace period for English ended 27 years
ago in 1988 but Pakistan is no nearer the goal of replacing it with Urdu
as the official language. The truth is that none of the governments,
whether civilian or military, which have been in power during this
period, has shown any discard English in favour of Urdu. As a result,
English has become further entrenched as official language, while the
use of Urdu in government offices has been declining despite the fact
that its nation-wide use as the language of communication between people
speaking different mother tongues has been growing constantly and the
language has gained acceptance even in the far-flung parts of the
country as its lingua franca.<br><br>The Nawaz government’s announcement
to make Urdu the official language was not made of its own accord but
in response to strictures passed by a Supreme Court bench during the
hearing of a case brought by a civic-minded citizen on the government’s
failure to implement Article 251. It remains to be seen whether the
government possesses the will to take the necessary policy steps to
fulfil its commitment. <br><br>Scepticism about the government’s resolve
has been heightened by the fact that it has still not officially
published its new policy on Urdu, and neither the prime minister nor a
government minister has cared to speak on the issue in public.
Nevertheless, some of the initial steps announced by the government are
highly welcome even when they might appear to be largely of symbolic
importance. It is to be hoped that the spectacle of government ministers
and senior officials speaking in English within the country even when
their command of the language is very shaky will become a thing of the
past. <br><br>But these early steps are the easy part. The real test is
whether they will be followed up with the more difficult ones like
translating laws, policies and documents into Urdu and training
government personnel in the use of Urdu terminology and whether the
government has the will to overcome determined resistance from the
vested interests which favour the continuation of English as the
official language. A lot of hard work and leadership from the top will
be needed. The circular issued by the federal government directing the
different ministries and departments to start using Urdu is a typical
bureaucratic quick fix. Everyone expects that it will be largely
ignored. <br><br>Opposition to the new policy is coming from the
expected quarters: the tiny English-speaking ‘elite’ of the country
which is a legacy of British colonial rule, and the upper echelons of
the bureaucracy. These are groups which owe their power and privileges
largely to their knowledge of English. They have also become the
backbone of the present unjust class structure. The government will have
to show a lot of determination to break their resistance.<br><br>Most
important, the introduction of Urdu as official language must be part of
a broader language policy in which the use of regional languages is
also promoted. In particular, every province should be free to adopt its
own language for official purposes in addition to Urdu, and to promote
the mother tongue as the language of instruction in the schools. The
Supreme Court itself has underlined the importance of regional languages
in its hearing of the case and pointed to clause (1) of Article 251
which says that “without prejudice to the status of the national
language, a Provincial Assembly may by law prescribe measures for the
teaching, promotion and use of a provincial language in addition to the
national language.” <br><br>But the promotion of regional languages
should not be left to the provinces alone. Pakistan is a multi-lingual
country and the languages spoken in its different parts are a national
treasure. They all go to enrich the cultural mosaic of the country.
Their preservation, development and promotion should therefore be made a
priority at the federal level as well. In fact, it must go hand in hand
with the promotion of Urdu. <br><br>In its manifesto for the
parliamentary elections of 2013, the PML-N had promised the setting up
of a National Language Commission to develop criteria for giving the
status of national language to all major languages of the country. Two
years into its tenure, the government has done nothing so far to fulfil
this promise. In fact, it opposed a private bill introduced by a member
of its own party in July last year for an amendment in the constitution
to declare the major regional languages as national languages in
addition to Urdu.<br><br>The PMLN-led government should not delay any
further the fulfilment of its pre-election pledge to give the status of
national language to the major languages of the country. This would
require a constitutional amendment and this step should be taken in
parallel with moves to make Urdu the official language. The setting up
of a commission for this purpose, as proposed in the PML-N manifesto,
would not be advisable as the matter is essentially political. The task
of recommending which languages are to be given national status should
instead be left to a parliamentary committee which should give a hearing
to experts and to civil society representatives.<br><br>Once the
constitution grants the status of national language to the major
regional languages of the country, it follows logically that their
promotion should also be a federal responsibility, but without
restricting the authority of the respective provincial government for
their advancement. At the federal level, this task should be given to
the National Language Promotion Board (NLPB), which has replaced the
National Language Authority. <br><br>In keeping with its enhanced
responsibilities, the NLPB should be renamed the National Languages
Promotion Board and its governing body should be expanded to include
representatives of provincial governments. It would also help if the
composition and mandate of the NLPB are specified in the constitution to
rescue it from its present position in the backwater of the federal
bureaucracy. <br><br>The resources and the capacity of the NLPB would
also need to be enhanced to make it better equipped to carry out its
added responsibilities, especially to translate words and expressions
from foreign languages into Urdu and to coin new Urdu terms in the
realms of government and administration, law, science and technology,
and business and commerce. <br><br>It is a shame that we have no Urdu
words for even such high constitutional institutions and offices as
Senate, Assembly (as in National Assembly), Governor, Supreme Court and
the Election Commission and still use the English words transcribed
phonetically into Urdu. We should of course be ready to borrow words
from Arabic and Persian and exceptionally even from English. To assist
the NLPB in coining new words or adopting foreign words, the government
should also hire the services of people from the academia, the civil
society and the practitioners of various specialised professions.<br><br>In
promoting Urdu, the main focus in the Supreme Court hearings and in the
government’s executive order has been on its use as official language.
But the government’s constitutional responsibility is not confined to
that. Article 251 states that arrangements must be made also for its use
for “other purposes” within 15 years from 1973. Regrettably, our
governments have also failed completely in implementing this provision
of the article and no serious effort has been made to promote the use of
Urdu as a language of education and learning, of science and technology
and of business and commerce. To give just one example, no bank in the
country issues a cheque book in Urdu. It is hoped that the Supreme Court
orders in the ongoing case on Article 251 will address this aspect of
the matter as well.<br><br>The writer is a former member of the Pakistan Foreign Service.<br><a href="http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-9-330816-A-new-language-policy">http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-9-330816-A-new-language-policy</a><br><br clear="all"></span><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature">**************************************<br>N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to its members<br>and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner or sponsor of the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who disagree with a message are encouraged to post a rebuttal, and to write directly to the original sender of any offensive message. A copy of this may be forwarded to this list as well. (H. Schiffman, Moderator)<br><br>For more information about the lgpolicy-list, go to <a href="https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/" target="_blank">https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/</a><br>listinfo/lgpolicy-list<br>*******************************************</div>
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