KARACHI: President Pasban e Pakistan Altaf Shakoor insisted that the importance of the mother languages 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 languages and failed to give the due status to the Bengali language.
According to sources, AltafShakoor asserted that Pakistan can be a vibrant and thriving society, it needs to actively promote and patronage the mother languages. He mentioned that after suffering the loss of East Pakistan we should open our eyes and give due importance to all mother languages of Pakistan including Sindhi, Punjabi, Pashto, Balochi, Saraeki, Hindko and other regional languages, besides our national language Urdu. He focused on promotion of Urdu, as it is necessary that this great language should be localized and it should adopt the great treasure of words from the local mother languages, which are very rich in culture and literature.
AltafShakoor added,” The language 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 languages of Pakistan.”
He informed the media, “From 1952 to 1956, we failed to give the status of the national language to the Bengali, which was mother languages 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 language as it is the language of science and technology, but it is not wise to teach the English language from primary classes, as it is an accepted principle worldwide to impart early education to children solely in their mother languages. “
Altaf further said that the introduction of the English and Chinese should be welcomed, as these two languages are great international languages. He lauded the verdicts of the Supreme Court of Pakistan to implement the Urdu as official language of Pakistan. He also welcomed 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 languages of Pakistan and preserving their rich literature, culture and heritage for our coming generations.
“As Pakistanis, we need a ‘Pakistani language’ which should be a rich mix of all regional languages 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 language would be developed only when our writers, scholars and thinkers work, actively, on the localization of Urdu, to make it easily understandable for all people of Pakistan that speak different mother languages in their homes,” he commented.
Altaf insisted that on the international mother language day, we as a Pakistani nation should realize that without introducing a common mass language in Pakistan in shape of a localized Urdu we would continue to face many problems in overcoming the linguistic and cultural barriers between the different units of the federation of Pakistan.
