October 18, 2002	Friday	Sha'aban 11, 1423

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MUZAFFARABAD, Oct 17: Despite a decision of the cabinet and subsequent directives by the competent authority, some certain departments in Azad Kashmir are finding it difficult to resort to official correspondence in English, Dawn has observed.

The AJK cabinet in its meeting of Aug 6 had decided following a suggestion coupled with the arguments by then chief secretary Mohammad Naeem Khan to switch over to English as official language of the state. The CS, according to sources, had taken the plea that since the official language in Pakistan was English, Azad Kashmir should also adopt the same for the convenience and harmony with the provincial and central governments.

The CS had also pointed out that since the rules in Azad Kashmir were in English, but nothing was being done in Urdu, which was an anomaly and should be removed, sources said.

The cabinet members were of the view that the importance of English in the present age could not be denied but its adoption as official language in all the departments simultaneously could create problems (for the employees). Therefore, it was decided that at the initial stage home, planning and development, electricity, finance, law and services and general administration departments would switch over to English, while other departments would do the same gradually.

These departments were duly informed of the cabinet decision on Aug 28 through a summary and directed to comply with that.

Interestingly, the summary asking the departments to switch over to English was also written in Urdu, sources said.

However, sources said, despite the passage of more than a month, none of these departments, with the exception of the P&D and Hydro Electric Board, had changed the old practice of writing letters and issuing notifications in Urdu.

According to sources, many officials in these departments were in a fix because “they lacked skills in the foreign language.”

Azad Kashmir, it may be recalled here, too had English as its official language until 1968. It was changed to Urdu by then president and chief executive Khan Abdul Hameed Khan.