ISLAMABAD: A parliamentary committee on Friday agreed that the promotion of regional languages will promote solidarity and national harmony.

After holding a detailed discussion on two bills related to the promotion of regional languages, the Senate Standing Committee on Law and Justice, which met with Senator Mohammad Javed Abbasi in the chair, decided input will be taken from the National Language Authority (NLA) and the Pakistan Academy of Letters (PAL) in the next meeting on the bills.

The two bills related to regional languages were moved by senators Sassui Palijo and Karim Ahmed Khawaja.

The two senators were seeking amendments in the Constitution to give seven regional languages the status of national language.

Senators agree some regional languages should be declared national languages

The committee decided to merge both the bills and decided to discuss them further in the next meeting.

During the meeting, State Minister for Federal Education and Professional Training Balighur Rehman said regional languages are important and that some of them could be given the status of national languages after adopting a proper mechanism.

Senator Abbasi said the committee had also held a public hearing on the issue and that writers, intellectuals and members of the civil society had called for declaring all major regional languages in the country national languages.

Before deciding the matter, the committee will get input from all members and concerned institutions, he said.

The committee also discussed the Alternate Dispute Resolution Bill 2017, which could not be approved for now as Senator Farooq Hamid Naek said he wanted more time to read it.

“I was provided a copy of the amendment today so I cannot say anything about it yet,” he said.

The bill’s statement of objects and reasons says that there is a maxim of law that justice delayed is justice denied and that the maxim holds in civil and criminal cases.

“There is huge backlog of cases in both subordinate and superior courts of the country. It’s therefore, necessary to find simpler and faster alternates which can supplement the traditional legal system,” it says.

The committee also disposed of two Constitution amendment bills moved by senators Babar Awan and Maulana Hafiz Hamdullah due to the continual absence of the two senators from meetings of the standing committee.

Senator Babar Awan had moved a bill seeking amendment to Article 63.177 and 193 while Senator Hamdullah wanted amendments to Article 37. Two bills moved by Senator Azam Swati related to amendments in Article 255 and amendments to the defamation bill were also discussed.

Published in Dawn, April 29th, 2017