ACCORDING to Article 251 of the 1973 Constitution, our national language is Urdu and arrangements needed to be made to ensure its use for all official and other purposes within a given time frame.

Since then, many departments have been established and decisions have been made for the implementation of Urdu as the official language. The establishment of the National Language Promotion Department (NLPD) is an example in this regard.

The primary responsibility of NLPD is to create synergy between national and provincial governments and institutions for using Urdu. The Supreme Court of Pakistan has ordered the government several times to adopt Urdu as the official language, but all these orders and efforts seem to be confined to paperwork only, as no coherent steps have been taken to implement these orders in letter and in spirit.

The prime minister has recently done a commendable job by directing that all official engagements should be held in Urdu, but proper implementation of Urdu as the official language has a long way to go. It has been rightly said that even a journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step. The NLPD ought to collaborate with all provincial and federal public service commissions to conduct all examinations in the Urdu language alone. Moreover, the NLPD needs to broaden its horizon and ought to arrange translation of the recommended books of foreign authors so that the aspirants may have a chance to read and attempt papers in Urdu.

Muzzamil Shahzad
Lahore

Published in Dawn, July 16th, 2021