KARACHI: For a better national cohesion and bridging wider language gaps in the multi-linguistic country of Pakistan, Pakistan needs to develop a ‘Pakistani’ language by localization of our national language Urdu, so to make it further easily understandable for all people of Pakistan irrespective of their regional languages or mother tongues.
These remarks were made by Pasban e Pakistan President Altaf Shakoor. He said the idea of a Pakistani language is not against our national language Urdu, but rather in favour of Urdu to make it a true national language, by widening its scope and canvas. He said Urdu in fact has more natural adoptability than any other language of the world. It evolved from a makeshift language of army camps, being a crude mix of different languages to become one of the greatest languages of the world. This inbuilt adoptability can easily enrich Urdu to absorb hundreds of thousands words of different regional languages of Pakistan and become a true lingua franca of this country.
He said presently, regional languages like Punjabi, Sindhi, Balochi and Pashtu have their own and separate alphabets and scripts. However, he suggested a common ‘Pakistani alphabet’ for all regional languages of Pakistan by expanding the limited alphabet of Urdu which has presently just 39 basic letters. However, the Sindhi language has 52 basic letters and Pashto has 45 basic letters.
He said Urdu, with its limited 39-letter alphabet cannot cater the needs of the rich regional languages like Sindhi or Pashto; hence, it is a must to expand the alphabet of Urdu so that it can write the basic letters and sounds of all regional languages of Pakistan.
He further said that presently, Urdu and other regional languages are written in different scripts. A student who is taught Urdu cannot read Sindhi or Balochi alphabets easily, which is a great headrace academically, politically, socially and culturally. He suggested adopting a standard Arabic-based script of all these languages in the shape of a Pakistani language.
He said the national and regional language authorities in Pakistan and language departments of different universities should join hands to develop a common alphabet and common script for all Pakistani languages. It would not only bring different linguistic and cultural units of the country closer but also greatly help in promoting education and literacy.
He said the recent verdict of the Supreme Court of Pakistan to make Urdu the official language of the country is laudable, but we must go a step further to actively localize our national language Urdu, by expanding its vocabulary by adding rich treasure of local language words to it, besides giving it an exhaustive alphabet and standard script to cater the needs of all regional languages of Pakistan including Sindhi, Punjabi, Balochi and Pashto. He asked for introduction of a same standard alphabet and script for all languages of Pakistan including the national language Urdu.
He said, “However, this is a great challenge to our writers, thinkers, academicians, linguistic experts, as well as, media, judiciary, political parties and whole civil society.”