Equal blame

Recently a renowned private school in Sahiwal issued a notification warning students not to use abusive and foul language on school premises and intentionally or unintentionally added Punjabi in what was banned. This caused a commotion and social media was filled with criticism on this condescending order. Around 65 percent people speak Punjabi in the country. The language is spoken by over 100 million native speakers worldwide, making it the tenth most widely spoken language in the world. But if we analyse the ground realities, we shall notice that most of us send our children to private schools to learn and speak English. This means we too prefer English over Urdu and Punjabi.

Diversity in languages is a natural phenomenon. Punjabi literature is very rich and replete with cultural, social and linguistics aspects. The poetry composed by the Punjabi poets is a source of comfort. The government needs to take measures for the preservation and promotion of Punjabi language and literature.

Muhammad Fayyaz

Mianwali