KARACHI: President Pasban e Pakistan Altaf Shakoor insisted that the importance of the mother la
nguages could never be underestimated, because as a Pakistani nation we have already braved a great national loss of the Dacca Fall, only because the then rulers neglected the importance of the mother la
nguages and failed to give the due status to the Bengali la
nguage.
According to sources, AltafShakoor asserted that Pakistan can be a vibrant and thriving society, it needs to actively promote and patronage the mother la
nguages. He mentioned that after suffering the loss of East Pakistan we should open our eyes and give due importance to all mother la
nguages of Pakistan including Sindhi, Punjabi, Pashto, Balochi, Saraeki, Hindko and other regional la
nguages, besides our national la
nguage Urdu. He focused on promotion of Urdu, as it is necessary that this great la
nguage should be localized and it should adopt the great treasure of words from the local mother la
nguages, which are very rich in culture and literature.
AltafShakoor added,” The la
nguage issue is very complex and sensitive political issue also and neglecting this issue has already cost us the East Pakistan. Therefore, we should now actively give due importance to all mother la
nguages of Pakistan.”
He informed the media, “From 1952 to 1956, we failed to give the status of the national la
nguage to the Bengali, which was mother la
nguages of millions of people living in the East Pakistan and resultantly in 1971 we braved the national tragedy of the Dacca Fall.”
He remarked, “We are
not against the English la
nguage as it is the la
nguage of science and technology, but it is not wise to teach the English la
nguage from primary classes, as it is an accepted principle worldwide to impart early education to children solely in their mother la
nguages. “
Altaf further said that the introduction of the English and Chinese should be we
lcomed, as these two la
nguages are great international la
nguages. He lauded the verdicts of the Supreme Court of Pakistan to implement the Urdu as official la
nguage of Pakistan. He also we
lcomed the order of holding the CSS papers in Urdu and said such brave decisions would augur well for Pakistan in future. However, he requested for tagging more funds for the promotion of all mother la
nguages of Pakistan and preserving their rich literature, culture and heritage for our coming generations.
“As Pakistanis, we need a ‘Pakistani la
nguage’ which should be a rich mix of all regional la
nguages of Pakistan so that in future it could serve as a main communication vehicle for this big country, having diversified linguistic and cultural fabric,” Shakoor stated.
“Pakistani la
nguage would be developed only when our writers, s
cholars and thinkers work, actively, on the localization of Urdu, to make it easily understandable for all people of Pakistan that speak different mother la
nguages in their homes,” he commented.
Altaf insisted that on the international mother la
nguage day, we as a Pakistani nation should realize that without introducing a common mass la
nguage in Pakistan in shape of a localized Urdu we would continue to face m
any problems in overcoming the linguistic and cultural barriers between the different units of the federation of Pakistan.