ISLAMABAD: Prof Dr Rauf Parekh has taken charge of the National Language Promotion Department (NLPD) as director general (DG) to promote Urdu.

He has directed members of the staff to devote themselves towards progress of the department.

Dr Parekh, a well-known historian, linguist and columnist, remained associated with the Urdu department of Karachi University and the Urdu Dictionary Board from 2003 till 2007. A number of books, written by him, have been launched in the past.

It is worth mentioning that as per the 1973 Constitution, it was decided that Urdu will be the official language of Pakistan and National Language Authority (NLA) was formed and given the task to implement it within 15 years.

On Oct 30, 2012, NLA’s name was changed to NLPD; it became a department and was directly placed under the Ministry of National Heritage and Integration, due to which the designation of chairman was changed to DG and secretary to executive director.

Published in Dawn, December 22nd, 2020