ISLAMABAD: Political will and bureaucrats are the main obstacles in the implementation of Urdu language as an official language, Academy of Letters Director General Dr Rashid Hameed told Pakistan Today.
The federal government has failed to implement Urdu as an official language of Pakistan, in spite of Supreme Court’s orders to fulfil its constitutional obligations.
According to the 1973 constitution, Pakistan was to adopt Urdu as an official language within 15 years but unfortunately the implementation of this order has not been achieved, Dr Hameed said.
He said that according to some people, the constitutional clause requiring Urdu to be adopted as an official language was no longer relevant, since the specified 15 years for its implementation had already passed. However, technically speaking, the clause continues to be relevant unless amendments are made in the constitution.
The DG went on to say that the adoption of Urdu as the national language of Pakistan had been agreed upon in multiple sessions of Muslim League before Pakistan came into existence. Quaid-e-Azam himself said in March 1948, “Let me make it very clear to you that the state language of Pakistan is going to be Urdu and no other language… Without one state language, no nation can remain tied up solidly together and function. Look at the history of other countries. Therefore, so far as the state language is concerned, Pakistani language shall be Urdu”.
Dr Hameed said that the problem with the implementation of Urdu as Pakistan’s official language lay in the rule of “kings” in Pakistan. The “kings” want to retain their rule through keeping the common people ignorant and not letting them come forward, he concluded.
While talking to Pakistan Today, National Language Promotion Department Director General Iftikhar Arif said that there seems to be a glimmer of hope as the government has constituted a committee to oversee the matter, and things are advancing with regards to adopting Urdu as an official language.
