ISLAMABAD, Sept 15: Senate chairman Muhammadmian Soomro on Wednesday averted a looming crisis in the upper house by ruling that Urdu and all languages spoken in the country were national languages of Pakistan.

The chairman senate said all the languages spoken in Pakistan were national in character and could not be termed as regional languages. The tempers flared up in the Senate when Education Minister Lt-Gen (retired) Javed Ashraf Qazi, responding to a question by Senator Sanaullah Baloch, said no department existed in Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU) for teaching what he said were the regional languages of Balochi, Sindhi, Punjabi or Pushto.

Senator Baloch had asked about the number of language departments in the QAU and if the government had any plans to introduce a department of Balochi language in the university.

Some senators of Balochistan on the opposition benches took strong exception to the minister's answer. Reacting to the statement of the minister, the angry senators from Balochistan said they did not accept Urdu as the national language, which they said was imposed on the "sons of the soil."

Dr Aslam Buledi said it would not be acceptable to the people in the provinces that their languages were termed as regional while an exalted status was accorded to Urdu as a national language. The senator said Urdu was the language of "Darbars."

MQM Senator Ahmed Ali stood up to challenge the remarks by the senators from the opposition benches. Earlier, Senator Sanaullah Baloch said a number of diplomats in the capital were interested in learning the various languages of Pakistan. He said it was ironic that Moscow University had separate departments for research on Balochi language but it was not being taught at QAU.