Aga Khan on Arabic as National Language of Pakistan

January 3, 2011 Leave a Comment

Pakistani stamp of Sultan Mahommed Shah, Aga Khan III, GCSI, GCMG, GCIE, GCVO, PC (November 2, 1877 July 11, 1957) was the 48th Imam of Ismaili Muslims. He was one of the founders and the first president of the All-India Muslim League, and served as President of the League of Nations from 1937-38.

Sultan Muhammad Shah Aga Khan, the 48th Fatimid Imam for Ismaili Muslims at a session of Motamer al-Alam-alIslamiyya on February 9, 1951 in Karachi said:

I can assure you that it is not with a light heart that I address you this evening. I fully realise that what I am going to say will make me most unpopular with important sections of the population. However, I would be a traitor to Islam if I let this opportunity pass without placing before the people of this powerful and populous Islamic nation the views which I consider my duty to place before the Muslims with as many of the arguments as I am capable of using in a short address.

I fear some of my arguments will mortally offend those who under totally different conditions gave so much of their life for the support of the cause which I think today has been passed by events far more important than any dreamt of in those days. I feel the responsibility greater than any I can think of to place my views and arguments before the Muslim population of Pakistan as a whole each and every province while what I consider a tragic and deadly step is not yet taken and not added to the constitution of this realm.

The language of a nation is not only the expression of its own voice but the mode of interpretation with all other human societies. Before it is too late, I, an old man, implore my brothers in Islam here not to finally decide for Urdu as the national language of Pakistan but to choose Arabic. Please hear my arguments.

If what was the other part of the former British Empire of India had made Urdu its national language, there would have been a great argument for Pakistan doing ditto. It could have been a linguistic and important point of contact with the vast Republic of the South. I am the last man on earth to desire to break any bridge of contact and understanding between

Pakistan and its immense neighbour. Not only Urdu but even Hindustani has been replaced by Hindi throughout Bharat as the national language. The people of Bharat were perfectly justified to choose any language which the majority considered most appropriate and historically justified to be their national language. The majority there has the right to choose what was most suitable for them as the official language of the country.

Your choice in Pakistan of Urdu will in no way ameliorate or help your relations with your neighbour, nor will it help the Muslim minorities there in any conceivable way. Howsoever you may add Arabic and Persian words to Urdu there is no denying the fact that the syntax, the form, the fundamentals of the language are derived from Hindi and not from Arabic. Was Urdu the language of the Muslims of India at the time of their glory? During the long Pathan period, Urdu was never considered the language of the rulers.

Now we come to the Moghul Empire in the period of its glory. It was not the language of the educated. I defy anybody to produce a letter or any other form of writing by Emperors Aurangzeb, Shah Jehan, Jehangir, Akbar, Humayun or Babar in Urdu language. All that was spoken at the Court was Persian or occasional Turkish. I have read many of the writings of Aurangzeb and they are in beautiful Persian. Same is true if you go to the Taj Mahal and read what is written on the tombs of the Emperor and his famous consort. Persian was the court language and the language of the educated and even till the early 19th century in far Bengal, the Hindu intelligentsia wrote and used Persian and not Urdu. Up to the time of Macaulay, Persian was the language of Bengali upper classes irrespective of faith and of official documents and various Sadar Adalat. We must look historical facts in the face. Urdu became the language of Muslim India after the downfall. It is a language associated with the downfall. Its great poets are of the downfall period. The last and the greatest of them was lqbal, who with the inspiration of revival gave up Urdu poetry for Persian poetry. There was a meeting in Iqbals honour in London organised by men such as Prof. Nicholson. I was present at that meeting. Iqbal said that he went in for Persian poetry because it was associated with the greatness of the Islamic epoch and not with its misfortunes. Is it right that the language of the downfall period should become the national language of what we hope now is a phoenix-like national rising? All the great masters of Urdu belong to the period of greatest depression and defeat. It was then a legitimate attempt by the use of a language of Hindi derivation with Arabic and Persian words to find ways and means of better understanding with the then majority fellow countrymen.

Today that vast British dependency is partitioned and succeeded by two independent and great nations and the whole world hopes that both sides now accept partition as final. Is it a natural and national language of the present population of Pakistan? Is it the language of Bengal where the majority of Muslims live? Is it what you. hear in the streets of Dacca or Chittagong? Is it the language of the North West Frontier? Is it the language of Sind? Is it the language of the Punjab? Certainly after the fall of the Mughal Empire the Muslims and Hindus of certain areas found in it a common bond, but now today other forms of bridges must be found for mutual understanding. Who were the creators of Urdu? What are the origins of Urdu? Where did it come from? The camp followers, the vast Hindi-speaking population attached to the Imperial Court who adapted, as they went along, more Arabic and Persian words into the syntax. of their own language just as in later days the English words such as glass and cup became part of a new form of Urdu called Hindustani. Are you going to make the language of the Camp, or of the Court, the national language of your new-born realm? Every Muslim child of a certain economic standard learns the Quran in Arabic, whether he is from Dacca or Quetta. He learns Arabic to read the Quran.

Arabic is the language of Islam. The Quran is in Arabic. The Prophets hadith are in Arabic. The highest form of Islamic culture in Spain was in Arabic. Your children must learn Arabic to a certain extent always. The same is true of your West whether Sind, Baluchistan or the North. From the practical and worldly point of view, Arabic will give you, as a national language, immediate contact not only with the 40 million Arabic-speaking people of independent nations on your West, but the other 60 million more or less Arabic-speaking people who are not independent but who exist in Africa. Right up to the Atlantic, not only in North but as far South as Nigeria and the Gold Coast, Arabic is known to the upper classes of the population. In all the Sudans, on the Nile or under French rule, Arabic is the language right up to the borders of Portuguese West Africa. In East Africa, not only in Zanzibar but amongst the Muslim population of even countries as far apart as Madagascar and Portuguese East Africa, Arabic is known. If we turn to the Far East, Arabic has prospered throughout the region inhabited by 80 million Muslims of Indonesia, Malaya and Philippines. In Ceylon, Muslim children of the well-to-do classes get some knowledge of Arabic.

Is it not right and proper that this powerful Muslim State of Pakistan, with its central geographical position, its bridges between the nearly 100 million Muslims of the East and 100 million Muslims of the West its position of the East from Philippines and the Great State of Indonesia and Malaya and Burma and then westward with the hundred millions in Africa, right up to the Atlantic, should make Arabic its national language and not isolate itself from all its neighbors and from the world of Islam with a language that was associated with the period of downfall of Muslim States.

And finally, whi1e Arabic, as a universal language of the Muslim world will unite, Urdu will divide and isolate. Gentlemen, brothers in Islam, people of Pakistan, people of every Province, I appeal to you, before you take the final and what I unfortunately must say, I consider, the fatal jump down the precipice, please discuss and let all and every one contribute their views. Take time and think over it. Once more I appeal for Islamic charity from those whom I may have offended and I appeal to all others to look to the facts in the face both historically and as they exist at present. I pray that the people of this country may be guided by Divine Wisdom before they decide.

Report 1: Language Policy Pakistan

Language Policy in Pakistan By: Faizullah Jan Introduction Pakistan is a multilingual and multiethnic country with six major and over 57 small languages. However, the languages of the domains of powergovernment, corporate sector, media, and education etc.are Urdu and English (Rahman 1996). Urdu, which is spoken by just 7% of the population, is the national language, while English is the official language. The small languages are under tremendous pressure, some of which have become extinct, while others are about to extinct because of the states favoring Urdu and English at the expense of others. Urdu is spoken by the people who migrated from India to Pakistan at the time of partition. They are called Mohajirs, which itself is an Urdu word meaning refugees or settlers. Almost all of them settled in urban Sindh, southern province of Pakistan. Since they were educated, they dominated the bureaucracy of Pakistan despite their numerical weakness: they were just 3% of the total population of Pakistan.

Now that Urdu has become the language of domain of power, indigenous people have to learn Urdu and English, which is the official language, to get a job in public and private sectors. Thus indigenous languages lost their vitality for their own people for pragmatic reasons. Rahman (2003: 4) says members of the elite class had a stake in the continuation of English because it differentiated them from the masses and constituted a class-identity marker. Thus

Urdu and English relegated the indigenous languages to a lower status where they became a stigma instead of repertoires of local knowledge.

Historical Background Pakistan emerged as an independent Muslim state in 1947 when India was partitioned after the British left the subcontinent as their colony. The major ethnic groups that comprised the newly-created state were Bengali, Punjabi, Pashtuns, Sindhis and Balochs. Bengalis were more than 50% of the total population, who in 1971 seceded from Pakistan to become Bangladesh. Privileging Urdu at the expense of their language, Bangla, was one of the grievances that led to the division of Pakistan on ethnic and linguistic lines. The imposition of Urdu as a national language served to denigrate the role of every other language which alienated other language groups throughout the country (Ayres 2003: 57). In their zeal to build a nation state out of different nationalities, the different constitutions of Pakistan have waived aside as insignificant all the ethnic, racial, linguistic and cultural differences. As a result there is an almost total disregard for the existence of the various ethnic and linguistic groups. Pakistan is home to four major ethnic groups with their own distinct languages, cultures, histories and geography. However, they share common religion of Islam. Almost all the ethnic groups constitute a majority in their area of origin and are indigenous to it, but constitute a minority in comparison to the entire population of the country.

Languages of Pakistan
Language Punjabi Pashto Sindhi Siraiki Urdu Balochi Other % of speakers 44.15 15.42 14.1 10.53 7.57 3.57 4.0

Source: Census 2001

Punjabi is a major language which is spoken both in Indian and Pakistani Punjabs. In the Indian Punjab it is used in many domains of power. It is the language of songs, jokes, intimacy and informality in both Pakistan and India, which makes it the language of private pleasure. Pushto is the second largest tongue in Pakistan and a majority language in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa [formerly N.W.F.P] province, in the tribal areas of Pakistan, and in Afghanistan. In Afghanistan, it is also used in the domain of power. Sindhi and Balochi are the two other major languages that give a different ethnic and racial identity to the people who speak them.

Language Policy in Pakistan Language policies have far-reaching educational, economic, and political effects. In multiethnic countries, like Pakistan, language policies can determine who has access to schools, who has opportunities for economic advancement, who participates in political decisions and who has access to jobs etc. Ayres (2003: 51-52) says that despite the great diversity of languages and ethnicity in Pakistan, the government has paid little attention to language as policy because of which some ethnic groups are disproportionately powerful and advantage. Though only 7% people speak Urdu, it has been privileged to cement the distinct ethnic groups into a nation. Language policy in Pakistan is meant to strengthen the state by promoting Urdu as a national language. The language policy also claims to modernize the state through English as official language. There is an element of cultural imperialism about privileging Urdu i.e. the dominant language and aspects of its culture are passed on to

people of other languages. Literate people of other cultures, especially those serving in the armed forces, speak Urdu with their children even at home to identify themselves with people of power. It alienates them from people of their own culture who stick to their mother tongue. This policy, however, boomeranged when Pakistan experienced its first language in riots in 1953, which culminated in the division of Pakistan on ethnic and linguistic lines in 1971.

Language and Education In 1947, soon after Pakistan was created an All Pakistan Education Conference was held which recommended to the Constituent Assembly that Urdu should be declared lingua franca of Pakistan, and that it must be taught as a compulsory subject in schools across the country. Soon after the conference Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the first Governor General of Pakistan, and Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan announced that: Pak istan is a Muslim state, and it must have its lingua franca, a language of the Muslim nation It is necessary for a nation to have one language and that language can be Urdu, no other language. This statement, instead of cementing, further divided the imagined nation when Bengalis launched a language movement against the states language policy. Most of Pakistans language problems grew out of regional linguistic groups taking umbrage at the states insistence on making Urdu the national language. The o verarching problem in this regard was the governments unaccommodating language policies (Ayres 2003: 57).

In 1959, the Commission on National Education called for upgrading the status of Urdu from lingua franca to national language on a par with national anthem. Lt. Gen. Ziaul Haq, who toppled Pakistans first popularly elected Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, in order to justify his takeover, started Islamization of laws which also saw a new language policy. Islamyat, which means the study of Islam, and Arabic language were introduced as compulsory subjects at school and college levels. Plans were made to set up Arabic language centers countrywide and to enforce Urdu in previously English medium schools. Thus Urdu was once again privileged over other languages.

Right from 1947 till date English has been the official language of Pakistan which has further cornered regional languages. In 1973, the Parliament of Pakistan unanimously passed a new constitution the first-ever by an elected Parliament. This constitution, which after several amendments is still enforced in the country, has the following provisions about language in the country:

1. The national language of Pakistan is Urdu, and arrangements shall be made for its being used for official and other purposes within fifteen years from the commencing day. 2. English may be used for official purposes until arrangements are made for its replacement by Urdu. 3. Without prejudice to the status of the national language, a provincial assembly may by law prescribe measures for the teaching, promotion and use of a provincial language in addition to the national language. However, despite the lapse of almost 40 years, Urdu has yet to replace English as official language.

Language and Media Because of bias in educational policy the mainstream mass media in Pakistan are Urdu- and English-based. Ironically, the most influential press in Pakistan is none other than English which draws a dividing line between the elite and the masses: English press is for the elite and Urdu press for the masses. Even the government has different approaches for Urdu and English media: English newspapers are more liberal in their coverage of news and commentary, while Urdu press is too circumspect. But the degree of freedom that the English press enjoys does not help the masses because it is elitist in its approach and barely discusses issues of the common people. These newspapers try to address more the foreign audience than the local people. Almost 95% private television channels broadcast their content in Urdu. They concentrate mostly on urban areas, while the people of indigenous languages mostly live in rural areas. Private television channels are available only on cable and cables are limited to urban areas. The state-run television does programming in indigenous languages, but

they are too few as compared to programming in Urdu. Indigenous languages suffer from double jeopardy: 1) few programs of short duration, 2) they are not broadcasted in prime time. This means indigenous languages programs go on air at a time when few people have spare time to sit in front of TV or listen to radio.

A case study of Education Policy 2009 A critical implementation issue for language policy is education. Before the creation of Pakistan during the British colonial era the language in education policy was that Urdu should be the medium of instruction for the masses and that English should be the medium for the elite. Since 1947 Pakistan has formed several education policies, but their implementation has generally failed to develop in line with policy (OBE 2010). In the 2009 education policy the state makes a commitment to use Urdu as the medium of instruction in state schools. At the same time it wants to widen access to English language teaching. These two divergent goals are creating barriers to effective education, limiting economic mobility and undermining social cohesion. The new education policy says little about languages in education, which shows the level of interests or disinterestthe government shows towards language as a tool of education. It also shows that the government is not concerned about the importance of mother tongue in education despite the rhetoric of promoting regional languages at least at primary level of education. For example, Section 5.4 of the education policy discusses the importance of literacy and non-formal learning but without saying anything at all about which language or which writing system people are to be helped to become literate in or what functions literacy is expected to have.

The state has always treated the issue of language in the different education policies as a factor of no significant relevance, and this is more so in case of languages other than Urdu and English. At cursory look at the different education policies shows that the new education policy is no different from the previous ones and that it is not going to have any positive impact like its predecessors.

Before 1947, when Pakistan was created, the British colonials had a policy of education for the local people which has little changed despite the lapse of more than 60 years. As a matter of policy the British masters implemented an education policy where Urdu was medium of instruction for general masses, while for the elite the medium of instruction was English.

In 1959, Pakistan came up with its first education policy with a minor change to the one it had inherited from the British. This policy called for primary and secondary education in Urdu and higher education in English. However, at the implementation level there was no change in policy. Pakistan framed its first democratic constitution in 1973 which dealt with the language policy in just three articlesand they were never actually implemented.

According to this constitution, English is to be replaced by Urdu within 15 years as official language, and that provinces are free to develop their own language policy. However, after a lapse of more than three decades Urdu has yet to replace English, as I have mentioned in previous pages. The local governments are undecided about the language policy because over the years people have made a voluntary shift from mother tongues to Urdu and English in education to have a share in jobs and have access to power in many garbs.

Furthermore, despite this provision in the constitution, education policy remained the same at the implementation level. Even this policy lasted for just five years. Zia ul Haq made a coup in 1977, imposed martial law and started Islamization and Urduisation at every leveleducation included. This further marginalized the indigenous languages. Now English was to be taught as a compulsory subject from grade 4, while all schools have to prepare for conducting exams in all subjects in Urdu by 1989. This policy lead to a mushroom growth in private English medium schools because parents wanted their children to master English which was still the language of domains of power, jobs and higher education.

In 1989, when the first democratic government was in place after eleven years, there was a change in the education policy which though was little effective at the implementation level. The new policy made English as a compulsory subject from grade one, which again ignored the basic role of mother tongue in primary or fundamental education. However, private elite schools continued with their English exclusive syllabi. Surprisingly, the government announced a new education policy in 1998 without a single statement regarding language policy. This shows that the government attaches no significance to the role of language in education. As a result private English medium schools flourished in urban areas, while in rural areaswhere almost 70 per cent of the population livesUrdu medium state-run schools continued with Urdu as medium of instruction in all subjects. This policy restricted the access of graduates of state-run schools to higher jobs because they could not compete with their peers who studies in the elite English medium schools. A white paper on education policy was issued in 2007 which stressed that English would be taught as a subject from grade 1, while mathematics and science are to be taught through English from grade 6. In the Punjab province the government had its own policy of teaching science through English from grade 10. But in both cases mother tongue was ignored as medium of instruction. The current education policy, which was issued in 2009, science and mathematics are to be taught through English in grade 4 and 5, while all science and mathematics are to be taught through English from 2014. Punjab, the largest province of Pakistan, on its part declared that science was to be taught through English starting from grade 4.

Looking at the different education policies right from 1947, the colonial era Urdu plus English policy has remained in place which contributes to a sense of cultural anomie experienced by many ethnic groups in Pakistan. Of the 58 other indigenous languages only Sindhi has an official role as medium of instruction in primary schools in Sindh province and Pashto is used in government schools in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province. English is a compulsory subject from Year 1. In practice, however, much depends on the availability of teachers; a few government schools have an English medium section whilst in others pupils do not get beyond learning the English alphabet in their five years in primary school.

Medium of instruction policy determines which social and linguistic groups have access to political and economic opportunities, and which groups are disenfranchised. The current Urdu + English policy carries with it several characteristics, of which the following three are most prominent: 1) English is an examination subject, 2) English teachers do not use English and 3) other languages are marginalized (OBE, 2010).

In government schools Urdu is the medium of instruction and yet Urdu is the first language of only 6.8% of the population. In non-elite private schools English is the medium of instruction and in the near future English will be the medium of instruction for certain subjects in government schools as well, yet English is the first language of only a tiny elite in Pakistan.

The Education Policy document 2009 actually says relatively little about languages in education in Pakistan. However, according to an estimate 95% of children in Pakistan do not have access to education in their mother tongue (OBE 2010).

This ambiguous policy of Urdu as national and English as official language has resulted in three different types of education systems in Pakistan, which again discriminates against the indigenous languages. The top tier of educational institutions, which are mostly private, impart education in English; the second mainstream institutions use Urdu as medium of instruction; while the third, madrassas (religious seminaries) use Arabic and Urdu as medium of instruction. In December 2006 the education ministry took many by surprise with a new policy announcement: From late 2007,

the English language will be taught much earlier in all state schools, and English will take over from Urdu as the medium of instruction for natural sciences and mathematics. This situation has caused a voluntary shift where people are negle cting their own languages and learning Urdu and English for pragmatic reasons. What happens is that market conditions are such that ones language becomes deficit on what Bierrre Bourdieu, the French sociologist, would call cultural capital (Rahman 1996 : 62).

Repercussions of the Language Policy Pakistans language policy has undermined every regions sense of identity. Pakistans language policies have reflected the degree to which all but a few chosen were prevented from participating in the process (Ayres 2003: 57). In reaction to this language policy, indigenous or regional languages have become identity markers. Rahman (2002) says that Pakistans language policy has made Urdu the obvious force to be resisted by ethnic groups, and strengthen their own language by corpus planning and acquisition planning.

Pakistan is one of 19 countries which are characterized by high linguistic fractionalization. There is thus an additional risk that inappropriate school language will contribute to long term political, social and economic instability and divisions along linguistic and ethnic lines. Pakistan is one of 11 countries which have high levels of fragility or conflict with a consequent risk of serious interactions of language policy with extended fragility.

Conclusion Pakistan has a nationalistic approach to language policy. The reason is that Pakistan is not ethnically or linguistically a homogenous country. The early policy-makers wanted to create a nation on the basis of common language. The people who migrated from India to Pakistan in 1947 and afterwards were more educated than the indigenous people and they spoke Urdu. During the campaign for an independent Muslim country Urdu was associated with the Muslims of India while Hindi was considered the language of Hindus. This is also one of the reasons that Urdu was declared the national language of Pakistan. English had beenand has beenthe language of the elite, it was declared as official language of the country.

Urdu and English became the languages of education and the mass media. The mainstream mass media of Pakistan are dominated by these two languages. There are very few newspapers and magazines that are published in indigenous languages. Urdu and English were privileged which set indigenous languages on the back foot. A majority of people cannot read or write their mother tongue (native language). Therefore the common people consume the Urdu media, both print and electronic, while the elite class gets their news and views from the English media.

As the result of language policies of Pakistan, the country is losing its cultural and linguistic diversity which is alienating the young generation from their ancestors, their roots, their culture and their essential self. They do not add useful skills; they subtract from existing skills (Rahman 2003: 9).

Recommendations Languages are repertoire of indigenous knowledge. When a language becomes extinct, humanity loses one storage of knowledge. Therefore, to reverse the language deficit Pakistan needs to adopt additive multilingualism as recommended by UNESCO. As recommended by several local parties and organizations, fundamental education should be imparted in mother tongue of the child. Since Urdu is the language of communication among the different ethnic groups, it can be taught as separate language. Not to be left behind in the knowledge of science and technology, English can be added to the curricula at secondary level.

Not surprisingly when a particular language is given no role to play in the education system, many parents respond by not encouraging the use of that language at home. A very effective way of killing a language is to deny it any place in the education system; parents themselves will then tend to take the next step of marginalizing the local language within the family in favor of the educationally privileged language or languages (OBE 2010).

The state-run Pakistan Television covers almost 95% landscape of Pakistan, more than any private media. This television service can be used for the promotion of indigenous languages by giving them proper representation in news, views and dramas. Private sector television channels concentrate mostly on urban areas because they are available only on cable and cables are limited to urban areas. Also, the private media are more commercial, like anywhere else. The state media are the only ones that have a duty beyond commercialism. The state-run television does programming in indigenous languages, but they are too few as compared to programming in Urdu. Indigenous languages suffer from double jeopardy: 1) few programs of short duration, 2) they are not broadcast in prime time. This means indigenous language programs go on air at a time when few people have spare time to sit in front of TV or listen to radio. Television should produce more programs in indigenous languages and they should be aired in prime time. Languages also get their vitality by having its own film industry. Patronizing the production of films in indigenous languages and documenting local knowledge in local languages can also save the endangered languages from becoming extinct.

[1] A national language is a language that is spoken by the majority of the people within a nation. But in case of Pakistan, a language that is spoken by just 7% people is called national language. Presumably, the early leadership assumed that it could help build a nation out of different nationalities with their own distinct languages and cultures. Being a national language, Urdu is to be the medium of instruction in educational institutions and the different organs of the state would communicate with each other and with the public in Urdu. Also all the official documents, like constitution and legal documents, have to be produced in Urduwhich has not been materialized so far.

[2] An official language is a language that has been declared by a government to be the language of the governed nation. English, being an official language of Pakistan, means that this language will be used for official purposes which again is communication among different state institutions. But, ironically, the constitution of Pakistan is in English, the language and education policies text is in English. Courts conduct their business in English. In short, Urdu is the language of the nation, which I think does not exist, while English is the language of the state.

References Ali, S. & Rehman, J. (2001). Indigenous People and Minorities of Pakistan: Constitutional and Legal Perspectives. Surrey: Curzon Press. Aryes, A. (2003). The Politics of Language Policy in Pakistan. In Brown, M. & Ganguly, S.(Eds.), Fighting Words: Language Policy and Ethnic Relations in Asia (pp. 51-80). Massachusetts: MIT Press. Masood, E. (2007, January 9). Urdus last stand. Retrieved March 25, 2011, from Open Democracy:http://www.opendemocracy.net/globalization/urdu_4231.jsp National Education Policy (2009). Ministry of Education, Government of Pakistan, from http://www.moe.gov.pk/nepr/NEP_2009.PDF OBE, H. (2010). Teaching and Learning in Pakistan: The Role of Language in Education. British Council, from http://www.britishcouncil.org/pakistan-ette-english-language-report.pdf Rahman, T. (1996). Language and Politics in Pakistan. Oxford University Press: Karachi

Rahman, T. (2003). Language Policy, Language Death and Vitality in Pakistan. Retrieved March 20, 2011, from http://www.tariqrahman.net/lanmain.htm Appendex

Education Policy Actions (2009): 1. The state shall provide greater opportunities to the citizens and areas that have been largely excluded from the mainstream development and participation in the national processes by ensuring even and equitable human development across Pakistan.

2. Government shall identify schools in the poorest areas for prioritisation in resource allocation and management for improving quality.

3. Ministry of Education in consultation with Provincial and Area education departments, relevant professional bodies and the wider public, shall develop a comprehensive plan of action for implementing the English language policy in the shortest possible time, paying particular attention to disadvantaged groups and regions.

4. The curriculum from Class I onward shall include English (as a subject), Urdu, one regional language, mathematics along with an integrated subject.

5. The Provincial and Area Education Departments shall have the choice to select the medium of instruction up to Class V.

6. English shall be employed as the medium of instruction for sciences and mathematics from class IV onwards.

7. For 5 years Provinces shall have the option to teach mathematics and science in English or Urdu/ official regional language, but after five years the teaching of these subjects shall be in English only.

8. Opportunities shall be provided to children from low socio-economic strata to learn English language.