It has also been decided that in the schools where the medium of instruction is Urdu or an approved provincial language, English be taught as an additional language from class 1." In Pakistan, language has been contested since the inception of the country. Pakistanis are proud of their culture and historical past and love to talk about politics and religion. Pakistani textbooks controversy. In Pakistan, language has been contested since the inception of the country. 570 0 obj<>stream First, there was the dispute between Urdu and Bengali, which led to the vivisection of the country, and now it is Urdu versus English, which is poised to create further long lasting problems for the country. Try 1 month for USD 1. Pakistan faced this problem in early years of its independence when language controversy exercised far-reaching effects on subsequent history of the country as a whole. It stated, "While we felt that English must yield to the national languages the paramount position it has occupied in our educational system so far, we are at the same time convinced that English should have a permanent position in that system." The bourgeois Sindhi poet has criticized some Urdu weeklies vehemently. For him, as it had been propagated since the emergence of Pakistan, the establishment of Urdu as the primary language of Pakistan was not only a nationalistic but a religious action. The first education commission report under Ayub, the Sharif Commission in 1959, suggested that even though English should remain in the educational system, the national languages should now occupy a more prominent position. 0000002752 00000 n Five languages have more than 10 million speakers each in Pakistan – Punjabi, Pashto, Sindhi, Saraiki and Urdu.Almost all of Pakistan's languages belong to the Indo-Iranian group of the Indo-European language family.. Pakistan's national language is Urdu, which, along with English, is also the official language. Pakistan is an ideologically inspired state and Urdu was a part of this ideology. startxref In parliament again an Official Language Bill was presented in 1972 asking for English to be replaced by Urdu, but yet again it was stalled in the Standing Committee hearings. %PDF-1.4 %���� As a result the Urdu proto-elite got a huge boost and soon educational institutions started offering degrees in the Urdu medium. This was because in most government schools this change was resisted, and even in schools where this was implemented English was taught as a foreign language with mediocre teachers. Although Arabic was never made compulsory, and regional languages, especially Sindhi, were never kicked out of the system, Pakistani students, though only in the state-run schools, did start the 1979 academic year with Urdu as the medium of instruction. 0000001210 00000 n Written by Robert Mickens, English-language editor of La Croix International. <]>> ... Presbyterian official's death sparks controversy in Pakistan The News International - Copyright @ 2010-2020. endstream endobj 569 0 obj<>/Size 558/Type/XRef>>stream THE URDU-ENGLISH CONTROVERSY IN PAKISTAN 179 polemical and methodologically unreliable books. Language is not only a medium of communication and instruction, it is a part of one’s identity. The two terms of both Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif were too unstable to make much of a difference either way in the debate. Monday, Dec 14,2020. The language used in the domains of power (like the higher bured the officer corps of the armed forces)is English, as it was during British rule. 0000003529 00000 n The government of Pakistan reflected that no other language but Urdu could be Yes, Urdu was being taught in all schools, and the president was making his major speeches in Urdu, and that there were numerous Urdu conferences and related events, yet the language still widely used in education, courts and government remained English. Urdu has been a controversial language in Pakistan despite its official and holy status. The Bhutto governments, having pro-Western stances and education in most cases, were more sympathetic towards re-introducing English as a medium of instruction in state schools. Controversy after independence regarding Medium of instructions (1947-1971) In self-governing Pakistan, government was framed by the pioneers of Muslim League. It is funny that people nowadays focus on the language rather than the correct usage of it. 558 0 obj <> endobj Asia Pakistan: How to approach the issue of rape amid a political controversy. Pakistan’s only major disordered in this field was witnessed in East Pakistan when in 1952 the Government headed by late Khwajah Nazimuddin refused to recognize officially Bengali as one of the State languages of Pakistan. The Pakistani textbooks controversy relates to the reported inaccuracy of most Pakistani textbooks and the existence of historical revisionism in them. The Urdu —English Controversy in Pakistan - Volume 31 Issue 1. However, this was hardly the case. This paper aims to critically examine the trends, issues and challenges in policy and practice of English language education in Pakistan. Is this immediate change feasible or even advisable shall be discussed in the next part. However, not much changed. trailer New Delhi: In a significant embarassment Chinese language state-run tv has broadcast a controversial image of Prophet Hazrat Muhammad however Beijing’s all-weather ally Pakistan is sustaining a stoic silence over the problem. Tags: India, language, Pakistan, sub continent Asia, Urdu. (2 May 1989). If history is any guide, the recent moves towards immediately enforcing Urdu as an official language seem problematic. Zia hailed from the urban lower middle class of Pakistan and as such had more of an affinity for the Urdu language and the staunch, non-mystic, version of Islam. And Nawab Muzaffar Hussain, the arch-reactionary, is particularly active in spreading language prejudice on the slogan of saving the Urdu language. By the end of Ayub’s rregime not much progress had been made. 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