President seeks revival of Urdu as medium of education across the country

KARACHI: President Mamnoon Hussain here on Saturday inaugurated the Urdu Bagh Complex (Urdu Garden Complex), a project of Anjuman-e-Tarraqi-e-Urdu (Union for promotion of Urdu), and registered his support for the revival of Urdu as the main medium of education across the country.

He said that it will not only pave way for uniformity in the standard of instructions available to the students but will further enable the local youth to make optimum use of their capacities and express their creativity without any inhibitions.

“Nations are identified on the basis of their language, history, cultural heritage and way of living, however, language tops the list and I pray that completion of Urdu Bagh Complex may provide the needed impetus for the Urdu Movement in all parts of the country,” he said.

He appreciated Anjuman-e-Tarraqi-e-Urdu for keeping different textbooks, pertaining to medicine, science, technology and literature that are translated in Urdu.

“This is a treasure that we as a nation can take advantage of,” commented the President and urging the managing committee of the Anjuman to develop and maintain a steady coordination with different universities in the country, particularly Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science and Technology (FUUAST) so as to expand the availability of research-oriented work underway across the globe.

“This will definitely help us as a nation in general and our youth, in particular, to remain updated and also remain exposed to the diversity world is experimenting in the field of science and technology as these are the modern day tools of progress and development,” emphasised the president.

He appreciated that certain universities of the country have realized the importance of Urdu and making efforts to get done the translations of research work, without any compromise in terms of quality.

“We must acknowledge the efforts made by the known scholar, Professor Matin ur Rehman Murtaza, associated with Karachi University’s Mass Communication department and his team of teachers and students for making major contributions in this regard that too with limited resources at their disposal,” he. President also urged local philanthropists to facilitate scholars involved in much needed knowledge-based pursuits.

He also sought close cooperation between public and private sector universities in the country mentioning that while much progress has been made in procuring appropriate translations of different technological and technical terminologies, however, since this is an ongoing process, we need an ever-increasing collaboration among the education centres.

President Mamnoon said that Anjuman-e-Tarraqi-e-Urdu to facilitate the universities and help to prevent loss of precious time in the translation of complicated technical terms so they are easily deciphered and comprehended by the public in general.

“We have to preserve them for our future generations and this can be easily done in the current era of digital technology,” said President Mamnoon further suggesting that access of people to this treasure be made easy through the application of information technology.

Mentioning that promotion of Urdu must be a joint cause for all Pakistanis, he said that as the President of Pakistan he had taken a lead and ensured that proceedings of meetings chaired by him are definitely made in the national language while Urdu is also used by him as the medium of conversation during meetings with foreign dignitaries.

The ceremony was also attended by Karachi Mayor Wasim Akhter and many other prominent citizens of the metropolis who represented different sections of the society.

President Mamnoon specially felicitated the Anjuame Tarraqi-e-Urdu President Zulqarnain Haider Jamil and Secretary Fatema Hasan for their sincerity in getting the Urdu Bagh project completed and hoped that their struggle will continue undeterred in the larger interest of the people of Pakistan.