matter as well when it comes to deciding the medium of instruction, the language in which the affairs of the state are run and decisions are made, the language of power, prestige and lucrative employment, and of higher learning in physical and social sciences. Good language education, in any language that is used for general acquisition and impartation of knowledge, is a right of every citizen and a prerequisite for any intellectual, artistic, literary and technological developments in a society. We need to take our language policy seriously which would include the policy of language education. The financial and technical investments required for good language education, be it methodology, curriculum, teachers, infrastructure, should at least match what we spent through Higher Education Commission and the grants it proffered over the past few years.
As far as the approach is concerned, it should be acknowledged that since English is a true global lingua franca and a language of both commerce and trade, and knowledge, every Pakistani must be given an opportunity to learn it to be able to acquire specialised skills and new expertise. However, neither English nor Urdu should be used to exclude people from political power, social prestige and a respectable life. The function of Urdu has also changed from being a language imposed by the state at the cost of other languages as viewed by some nationalists to being a peoples' language -- a shared language for running inter-provincial and inter-regional affairs, in addition to being the medium of popular discourse, journalism and entertainment. Three quarters of the literate population in Pakistan is literate only in Urdu. Urdu must replace English at the federal level and major national languages like Punjabi, Sindhi, Pushto, Balochi and Seraiki should be taught and used at the provincial and district levels to give people the basic right to learn their languages and include them in decision making. In addition to the major languages, all mother tongues, like Hindko, Brahvi, Potohari, Gujarati, Shina, Brushiski, Wakhi and Dhataki, etc must be seen as national languages and taught compulsorily in schools. Let a thousand flowers bloom!
The writer is an Islamabad-based poet and rights campaigner. Email: harrisspopk.org