ISLAMABAD: Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah committed a mistake by refusing to grant Bengali language the status of national language.

This was stated by Dr Syed Jaffar Ahmed, Director, Pakistan Study Centre, University of Karachi, while delivering a lecture at Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU) on Wednesday.

He was giving a lecture on ‘Federalism in Pakistan after the 18th Constitutional Amendment: Prospects and Challenges’ at the National Institute of Historical and Cultural Research, QAU.

“Quaid-i-Azam was the greatest leader of the 20th century. I’m his admirer, but big leaders make big mistakes and the same was done by the founder of the nation when he did not accept Bengali as the national language,” Dr Ahmed said.

He said the 18th Amendment must have adequately addressed the language issue.

“By accommodating regional languages, federalism can be made more meaningful. The 18th Amendment has given rise to federalism in Pakistan. Under this amendment 17 ministries have been devolved,” he said.

“Instead of one year, there should have been five years for complete transition,” Dr Ahmed said, adding that the then government did not provide sufficient time for its complete transition. He observed that the ruling elite was concerned with the increased provincial autonomy as they feared that it would create problems for the federal government in governing the country.

However, the amendment is aimed at bringing clarity in roles and responsibilities of various orders of the government and ensure greater provincial autonomy, Dr Ahmed added.

The speaker recalled that there was a full chapter on fundamental human rights in the Constitution but only in paper.

To complete the process, fundamental reforms are needed to ensure that public sector serves public interest and secures a political and economic union, he added.

Published in Dawn, April 30th, 2015

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