Pakistani leaders will now make speeches in Urdu while abroad because — because Narendra Modi has shown them the way. Sixty eight years have passed since Pakistan came into being, but it never occurred to our leaders to switch over to Urdu while on visits to foreign countries and the United Nations. But the mass murderer spoke Hindi in America, and now our judiciary feels our leaders must follow suit.

Incidentally, the judiciary itself writes its judgments in English — bad English at that — and our constitution is in English, and all constitutional petitions refer to section and sub-section and clause and sub-clause so and so in English. Suddenly, our government leaders agree that what a wonderful thing the national language is and they must speak Urdu abroad.

If at all they have to ape Modi, see how he ordered all bureaucrats to go out and clear garbage. Will our leaders order Pakistan’s powerful bureaucracy to sweep garbage — or will they conform themselves mere to that part of Modi’s example which doesn’t cost them much? Do they also know how much fun the Indian media would make of them when they follow their prime minister?

Neither Urdu nor Hindi is the UN’s official language. There are six UN languages — Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish. So no national honour is involved if our leaders continue to deliver their speeches in English abroad.

Tahir Zaman

Karachi

Published in Dawn, August 2nd, 2015

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