June 18, 2006	Sunday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 21, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, June 17: Scholars called to a seminar to explore the cause of delay in enforcing Urdu as the official language ended their deliberations here on Saturday uncertain if it ever would be.

Everybody agreed at the seminar organised by the National Language Authority (NLA) that people speaking different regional languages in the country accepted Urdu as the link language but not the vested class.

NLA Chairman Prof Fateh Mohammad Malik was puzzled by the delay as, he said, Urdu had acquired the required standard and sufficient scientific vocabulary for use in offices.

Dr Nabi Bukhsh from Sindh thought that maybe the scholars had not learned to look at the problems in the way of enforcing Urdu as the official language “in depth and with sincerity”.

Pakistan Academy of Letters Chairman Iftikhar Arif despaired for Urdu’s status.

Its merits and designation by the Quaid-i-Azam as the official language apart, he said the bureaucracy trained in the ways of the British of erecting a wall between the rulers and the people, would “never allow this”.

Despite the NLA’s work in publishing dictionaries and creating Urdu software programmes and the desire of writers of regional languages to see Urdu being used in offices and in the education system, he saw little chance of it.

China, France, India gave precedence to their national language and teaching English as a second language, he said wondering “why should Pakistan be different?”

Former judge and senator Javed Iqbal, who presided over the inaugural session of the seminar, said the fact that elected representatives of the four provinces expressed themselves with proficiency in Urdu in the parliament testified that Urdu was the link language of the country.

Though the importance of English as the international language could not be belittled, he said the mother tongue as well as Urdu be the medium of instruction in schools.

“Urdu too has attained tremendous international importance,” he said. He recalled that at an international conference in Dhaka on Islam being the religion of peace and harmony the audience insisted that he spoke in Urdu, and not in English, because “we understand Urdu better than English”.

Writer and critic Intizar Husain urged the establishment of a translation bureau to broaden understanding of classical and contemporary literature of writers of one language by others.

He wanted scholars to enhance the stature of Urdu but insisted that children should be taught in their mother tongue.

Tahir Muhammad Khan said people were in favour of Urdu, but self centred and myopic people were setting one language against another to create hurdles “in the same manner they did in East Pakistan”.

Linguist Dr Tariq Rahman viewed official language as the means to assert power and privilege. “If regional languages are not used in the education system the reason is that all jobs and perks are associated with English,” he said.

Scholar Zahur Awan observed that Urdu had the capacity to adapt and assimilate, and supported teaching of English from Class I “provided qualified teachers are there”. English would strengthen Urdu, not harm it, he said.