KARACHI: President of the Anjuman Taraqqi-i-Urdu Pakistan Wajid Jawad has demanded that the government hand over the administration and management of the Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science and Technology (Fuuast) to its founding and owning body, the Anjuman.

Mr Jawad was speaking at a ceremony at the Abdul Haq campus of Fuuast to mark the 65th death anniversary of Baba-i-Urdu Maulvi Abdul Haq, where he said that the university’s shift in medium of instruction from Urdu to English was a complete negation of the institution’s founding objectives.

The Anjuman president said the university had been established with the fundamental objective of making Urdu the medium of instruction and providing education in all branches of knowledge and the arts through the language. However, he said, Urdu was no longer the medium of instruction at the institution.

He recalled that when he attended a university Syndicate meeting for the first time as Anjuman president, he asked a professor and dean what language was used for teaching. “English,” he was told, despite the university law requiring Urdu to be the medium of instruction.

He said the land for the university’s Abdul Haq and Gulshan-i-Iqbal campuses had been acquired through the efforts of the Anjuman, which had made the establishment of the university possible.

The Anjuman president also said the organisation was working to take Baba-i-Urdu’s mission into the digital age. The Anjuman was also striving to revive Baba-i-Urdu’s historic office as a centre for literary, intellectual and cultural activities, he added.

Published in Dawn, August 16th, 2026