Daily Times

Karachi: Recognizing regional languages and including them in the constitution as national languages will guarantee an intact federation. This was a statement by participants in an open hearing on the ‘Language Bill’ at the Pakistan Institute for Parliamentary Services on Monday.

PPP’s Senator, Kareem Khuwaja earlier tabled the bill (which was deferred by the committee) proposing the recognition of 9 languages – including ‘Sindhi’ – to be incorporated as national languages in the constitution of Pakistan. The initial work on the bill was conducted by SV team and later undertaken by Senators for discussion.

A separate bill was tabled by two other PPP senators, Sassi Palejo and Ajiz Dhamra, which read that all four major provincial languages should be declared ‘national languages’. These two bills have been clubbed together and referred to the standing committee to look into its technicalities and legalities before submitting it to floor of Senate for voting.

The PML N’s Javed Abbasi, Chairman of the Law and Justice Committee, opposed the bill in a previous meeting. The Chairman was of the view that since the committee had not vetted the bill beforehand, it would raise a constitutional crisis.

Renowned Sindhi poets, writers, and intellectuals Naseer Memon, Jami Chandio, and Inam Sheikh took part in the discussion and believed that by including regional languages in the constitution as national languages, it would give further strength to the federation. ‘If we recognize and include mother languages as ‘national languages’, it would bury all sort of ambiguities of people speaking their respective languages,’ remarked Naseer Memon. Senator Khuwaja reminded the gathering that in the past the country had faced division over the a language crisis; a reference to East Pakistan when Bengali’s demanded their right to not have Urdu imposed on them as their national language.

Furthermore, echoing the thoughts and views of the participants, Seraiki, Pakhtun, Balochi, and Hazara civil society members and intellectuals pressed the public hearing committee to include all regional languages within the constitution. Their voices supported the bill tabled by Senator Khuwaja which contains 9 languages, as opposed to the 4 tabled by his colleagues.

Moreover, President of Sindh Vision, Ali Mardan Rahoojo, prepared a comprehensive research document in favor of the bill stating historical facts from several other countries for the preservation and recognition of the mother tongue as prime languages of communication.