LAHORE: Representatives of a number of organisations took part in a daylong hunger strike in front of the Lahore Press Club to protest discrimination against Punjabi language on Friday.
Seventy years after partition, Punjabi is still struggling to get official recognition. The language is not the medium of instruction at schools and colleges across the province.
Addressing the demonstrators outside the LPC, Punjabi Parchar President Ahmad Raza demanded the government to take practical steps to make Punjabi official language in the country’s most populous province.
“[The] Article 251 of the constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan binds the provinces to adopt necessary measures for promotion, teaching and usage of regional languages but the Punjab government has not taken any step in that direction and has not adopted measures to teach Punjabi at schools,” Raza added.
The government still had time to take notice of this issue, he said, adding, “Punjabi Parchar demands adoption of Punjabi as a medium of instruction till the primary level at schools and as a compulsory subject till graduation. We want a bill to be taken up in the Punjab Assembly for the promotion of Punjabi.”
Punjabi Parchar Secretary General Prof Tariq Jatala said that experts around the world had realised the importance of mother tongue in early education and UNESCO had also emphasised this, but the government of Punjab was deliberately keeping students in the dark by not teaching the language.
He maintained that the government’s policy of ignoring Punjabi language for decades was ruining Punjabi literature and heritage. “To save this language, the (Punjab) government must adopt Punjabi as a compulsory subject in educational institutions,” he added.
Besides Punjabi Parchar, Punjabi Adabi Board and Punjabi Khojgah are also struggling to get official status for the language.
Later, activists from these organisations held a protest rally from the Lahore Press Club to the Punjab Assembly in which a large number of teachers, students and members of the civil society took part.
At Faisal Chowk, famous poet Baba Najmi stressed the need for making poetry of Punjabi Sufi saints part of the curriculum. He was of the view that extremism could not be eliminated until “our children get to know the Sufi teachings of peace”.
Actor Rashid Mehmood, on the occasion, drew the government’s attention towards the Supreme Court’s order for the promotion and implementation of Urdu (as official language in the country) and other regional languages.
In 2015, the apex court had directed both the federal and provincial governments to strictly follow the timeline presented in the court for implementation of Urdu as official language. The judgement was also binding on the statutory and regulatory bodies of the federal as well as provincial governments.
Saying the provincial government was bound to adopt Punjabi as official language after the SC decision, Rashid Mehmood suggested the rulers to stop violating the court’s order.
Other key speakers included Rana Abdul Majeed Khan, Khalil Ojla, Kashif Hussain, Ghazala Nizamuddin, Iqbal Qaiser, Tahira Sara, Dr Zaheer Wattoo, Prof Ibad Nabil, Prof Karamat Mughal, Ziaullah Sara and Babar Jalandhari.
It may be mentioned here that Punjabi is spoken by over 44 percent of more than 200 million Pakistanis. It is the lingua franca of two-thirds of the population in Punjab but it does not have the status of official language even in the province. In Pakistan, Punjabi is written in the Shahmukhi script.
Published in Daily Times, October 14th 2017.