INTRODUCTION

Linguistics
Skills
Communication
Official
Communication
LINGUISTICS
Derived from Latin word lingua
(tongue) and istics (knowledge
or science)
Linguistics is the scientific
study of language or of a
particular language
Language is an instrument of
thinking and means of
communication. Language
yokes present, past and future
together.
SKILLS
Ability
Expertness
Techniques
Knowledge
Art
COMMUNICATION

The activity or process of

expressing ideas and
feelings
Conveying information to
the people
Interaction
OFFICIAL COMMUNICATION

A formal interaction of the members

of an organization in a hierarchy
Dissemination of a formal
information in different echelons or
tiers of an organizational setup and
with other governmental, semi
governmental or other organizations
and individuals
Verbal / non verbal.
USE OF LINGUISTIC
COMMUNICATION
To express feelings
To express ideas or thoughts
To socialize
To instruct
To give or receive directions
To perform different linguistic
functions for example to invite,
to order, to inform, to impress,
to apologize, to thank etc.
SALIENT FEATURES OF
COMMUNICATION
Communication is a process of
transferring messages in the form of
ideas or information from one
person to another.
It is a process or form of behaviour
by which an individual / individuals
affect the behaviour of another
individual/individuals
It is exchange of information
between two or more people to
create understanding
EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION IN
ADMINISTRATION
Proper timing
Regulated flow of information
Multiple channels
Nothing like face to face communication
Exposure about communication as a tool of
management
Empathy
Effective feed back
Synchronize communication on organizational
environment
Proper listening
Clarifying ideas before communicating
Talking to the people at their level and in their
language
Communicate as human being
Support words with deeds (actions speak louder
than words)
COMPONENTS OF COMMUNICATION

CONTEXT
MEDIUM
SENDER-ENCODER
MESSAGE

Receiver-decoder
FEED BACK
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ORAL &
WRITTEN COMMUNICATION
ORAL WRITTEN
Delayed feed back
Immediate feed back
Longer sentences, words
Shorter sentences;
shorter words
Conversational More formal
Focus on interpersonal Focus on content
relations
Prompt action Delayed action
COMMUNICATION IN A DYNAMIC
ORGANIZATION
To initiate, direct and coordinate
operations
To establish standards of
performance and provide
control
To obtain reports and
information
To develop and train personnel
THE SEVEN C’s OF EFFECTIVE
COMMUNICATION
Completeness
Conciseness
Consideration
Concreteness
Clarity
Courtesy
Correctness
MODES OF COMMUNICATIONS

1. COMMUNICATING VERBALLY

Face to face
Telephonically
Teleconferences
2. Communicating in writing

i. simple, relevant, brief

ii. Grammar and vocabulary
iii. Capitalization and punctuation-
spelling and word division
iv. Abbreviations; unknown,
confusing abbreviations be
avoided.
3. COMMUNICATING ELECTRONICALLY

Telephones
Telegrams
Telexes
Cablegrams
Faxes
E-mail
Teleconferences
Computer etc
DOWNARD, HORIZONTAL AND
VERTICAL COMMUNICATION
Messages in an organization flow
in three primary directions i.e.
downward, side ways, and upwards. It
is also possible, but not easy, to
communicate in a diagonal direction.
People are usually adept at
communicating in one direction or an
other. For example, some people are
motivated to become good upward
communicators, but they fail to
communicate in a meaningful way to
their colleagues, or to a lower ranking
employee.
 OFFICE SKILLS
Recording/maintenance of incoming
and out going letters
Noting on files
Drafting different forms of official
communications
Minutes of the meetings/
conferences
Preparation of briefs and briefings
Summaries
Office Reports
Introduction to Government Rules,
High Court Rules & Orders.
 NOTING ON FILES
There are two parts of an office file i.e.
Correspondence side and noting side
Correspondence side contains official
correspondence on the subject of the file
in chronological order with proper page
marking
Noting is based on the availability of
previous papers, policies and precedent on
the basis of which the “Paper Under
Consideration” (PUC) is to be dealt with by
writing of a self contained note and
interpretation of relevant rules
Noting side is an index of the file keeping
the history of the relevant file.
MAINTENANCE OF FILES AND
FILING SYSTEM
Alphabetical Filing System-
Alphabetical by subject is
useful filing system,
Rules Alphabetizing, Numerical
Filing System,
Non-paper Filing System,
Maintenance of Registers and
record.
STANDARD ABBREVIATIONS
PUC Paper Under Consideration
Corr. Correspondence
U.O. Un-Official
D.O. Demi-Official/Officially
S.N. Serial No.
K.W. Keep with (File)
L.F. Linked File
D.F.A. Draft For Approval
Memo. Memorandum
P.P. Previous Paper
P. Page
O.O. Office Order
C.R. Character Roll
Endt: Endorsement
O/C Office Copy
LETTERS WRITING
OFFICIAL
SEMI OR DEMI OFFICIAL
LETTERS
IT IS SAID THAT FACE IS
INDEX OF MIND AND
CONTENTS OF A
LETTER ARE INDEX OF
THE WRITER
 CHANNELS OF
COMMUNICATION

HIERARCHY
High Court

District & Sessions Judge

Senior Civil Judge

As highlighted earlier, in any sort of
communication the importance of linguistic
skills cannot be overemphasized. Moreso,
for a judicial officer, whose every word
spoken or written is looked upon with
utmost importance and subject to minute
scrutiny for its correct interpretation.
Communications by the Civil Court
especially the Senior Civil Judges could be
divided into several basic heads.
Judgment, order writing (Section 2(9)CPC,
Section 2(14)CPC.
Letter Writing
Maintenance of files & filing systems.
Maintenance of registers & records.
All these heads are basically consisting of the
several types of communications that a Senior
Civil Judge must have command over. Some of
these topics are exclusive to the Senior Civil
Judge and others are general to all judicial
officers.
JUDGMENT, ORDER WRITING:
Judgment as defined under Section 2(9) of the
Civil Procedure Code means “the statement
given by the Judge of the grounds of a decree
or order”. The term is not so formally defined
in the Criminal Procedure Code but the basic
requirement of a judgment in a criminal case is
essentially the same as in a civil case
inasmuch as it has to incorporate inter alia the
reasons for the decision.
LETTER WRITING:
We may divide this topic into several sub heads:
Official letters, the forms of which are provided in the rules or
law.
There are several letters written by way of routine the forms of
which are provided in schedules of Acts or the High Court
Rules & Orders. These include letter of request, summons and
notices etc. These must be strictly followed and care should
be taken in supervising the court staff to ensure that such
letters are in accordance with the prescribed forms as any
digression apart from being illegal creates a very shoddy
impression to outside agencies and the general public.
Official letters, addressed to other courts, Superior Courts,
Senior Officers or staff.
All such letters must carry the address of the sender and
receiver, the subject, salutations and the formal ending. Care
must be taken that the salutations and the ending are
appropriately respectful. The rule of sending all such
communication through proper channel may be strictly
adhered to as it apprises all the concerned officials of what &
where a particular subject matter lies and with what results. It
is equally important to follow this rule when approaching your
inferior staff or officer so that the channel of communication
is not broken and transparency at all levels is maintained.
Where the channels of communication are not
clear, profuse use of sending copies for
information may be made especially to the District
& Sessions Judge. The body of the letter should
contain an introduction to the subject if it is new
and a reference to the previous communication if
the subject is a continuing one. It should succinctly
and clearly state the subject matter and the action
proposed or the result required. Brevity, relevance
and eloquence are the hallmark of good letter
writing.

Official letters addressed to outside agencies.

The salutations in such letter writing may change
from occasion to occasion and help may be sought
from the appropriate literature on the subject. Help
may also be sought from computer formatting of
such letters. Utmost care is required in such letter
writing as such letters act as ambassadors of the
whole of the judiciary. The rules of brevity and
explicitness are the same as for internal letters.
FILING SYSTEM:
There are two types of files that a Senior Civil Judge is
required to maintain.
Office Files: These are the files that are maintained on the
administrative side and include all official communications.
They may again be divided into two heads; the ones
maintained by the Nazir of the court and they include all the
communications on accounts side, that are made with the
court agencies including the District & Sessions Judge, and
the High Court. Other official communications the files of
which are maintained by the Clerk of the court.

Court Files: These are the judicial files maintained by the

Moharrir of the court.

MAINTENANCE OF REGISTERS & RECORD:

i. Receipt & Despatch Registers
a) for process of the court
b) for Nazarat Branch
c) for other office correspondence

ii. (a) Judicial record pertaining to cases

(b) Pertaining to administrative functions
 HIGH COURT RULES/ORDERS
Ethics of Civil Practice
Vol.IV Chapter 19 (PART-A)
CORRESPONDENCE
1. Correspondence with High Court
All communications to and correspondence with the High Court should be in
English and should be addressed to the Registrar of the Peshawar High
Court, Peshawar.
2. Correspondence with High Court
The orders contained in Punjab Government Consolidated Circular No.5
regarding the routine and procedure to be observed in the submission of
correspondence, should be carefully observed by all officers of the Judicial
Department. The directions relating to correspondence with the Punjab
(Peshawar) Civil Secretariat are to be followed, mutatis mutandis, in
corresponding with the High Court. Judicial Officers are not allowed to
correspond direct with the Judges on matters affecting leave, transfer etc., or
other such official questions.
3. Correspondence with Indian States and places abroad
Special directions regarding judicial communications intended for Indian
States and places abroad will be found in High Court Rules and Orders,
Volume I, Chapter 10, Volume III, Chapter 9-C, and 16 and Volume IV,
Chapter 7-F, 8-C and 15.
 Vol: IV Chapter 19 (PART-B)
VERNACULAR CORRESPONDENCE
CONNECTED WITH JUDICIAL MATTERS
1. When correspondence in vernacular advisable:
The rule regarding correspondence being ordinarily conducted in
English is not intended to require the use of the English language
when the vernacular language is obviously the most expeditious
and convenient vehicle of communication.
2. When correspondence in vernacular advisable:
For instance, if a Judicial Officer requires further information on
some subject from an Pakistan subordinate of an adjoining
district, he should so word and engross his enquiry in the
Vernacular that the same sheet of paper which he sends may be
forwarded to such subordinate, through the agency of, but
without troubling, the Deputy Commissioner or District Judge of
that District; and be returned, in the same way, with the
information endorsed on it, but leaving no trace of itself but the
receipt in the letter despatch book.
3. Correspondence regarding arrest and transmission of
offenders:
Similarly, whenever offenders have to be arrested or
transmitted, a vernacular paper is the most convenient
medium, so that there may be no mistake in the name and
residence of the party, but the same paper which is sent
will be received back with the proper endorsement.

4. Public notices and proclamations:

In like manner, when offenders have to be proclaimed or
public notice given of any fact, the proclamations or
notices should be prepared by the officer who has
occasion for them in the jail press or elsewhere; he should
use a proper selection in determining the places where the
notices are to be published, and will then forward them by
a vernacular docket to District Officers, Officers in charge
of Sub-Divisions or Tehsildars, as the case may be, taking
care not to entail on the office receiving the notice any
more trouble than is involved in executing the order, and in
endorsing the fact on the docket, and returning it.
5. English Figures:
English figures alone shall be used in all official papers prepared
and registers maintained in the Judicial Department, except in the
case of vernacular summonses or notices, or in the vernacular
judgments of Judicial Officers, or in vernacular translations of
English judgments.

6. Judicial Orders and Processes: Signatures and address of the

officer:
Judicial Officers are reminded that, as a rule, every order passed
by them, and every process issued from their courts under their
signatures, should be signed in full, with the name of their office,
or the capacity in which they act, whether as Judge, Magistrate.
The practice adopted by many officers of endorsing important
orders and issuing robkars with only the initial letters of their
names and these often illegible, causes much inconvenience and it
should be avoided.

7. Vernacular correspondence between officers of different ranks:

Vernacular correspondence between an officer of superior rank
and an officer of lower rank shall be conducted by parwana on the
part of the former and by arzi on that of the latter, but the latter
should be addressed as ap and not as tum. A Tehsildar or other
officer of superior rank, when corresponding with an officer of
equal rank with himself, will use of the robkari form.
 Vol: IV Chapter 19 (PART-C)
THE USE OF RUBBER STAMPS FOR
SIGNATURES IN OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE

Rubber stamps for signatures not allowed:

The Honourable Judges have observed the use by a
certain District & Sessions Judge of a rubber stamp in
place of signatures in correspondence addressed to this
office.

Rubber stamps for signature not allowed:

This procedure in official correspondence, even in
matters of a routing nature, is objectionable for obvious
reasons. Full signatures should always be affixed by the
forwarding officer to all correspondence addressed to
this court.

When letters may be signed by an official:

Should it not be possible for the forwarding officer to
sign all letters, they should be signed for him by some
responsible official.
 Vol: I Chapter 10 (PART-D)
Commissions & Letter of Request
Reciprocal arrangements with
Azad Jammu & Kashmir
GENERAL:
The question of the channel through which Commissions
should issue by Civil Courts of the Azad Jammu & Kashmir
to Courts in the Punjab (Pakistan) has been the subject of
correspondence between the Provincial Government and
the Azad Jammu & Kashmir Government, as there has
hitherto been no prescribed method of transmission.

CHANNEL OF COMMUNICATION:

It has been decided that when Civil Courts in Azad Kashmir

are obliged to issue Commissions to Courts in the Punjab,
they will be transmitted to the District Judge concerned
through the High Court of Azad Jammu & Kashmir and will
be returned after execution in like manner through the
District Judge to the High Court of Azad Jammu & Kashmir.
Similarly Letters of Request issued by Pakistani Courts
under Section 77 of the Code of Civil Procedure should be
forwarded by District Judges to the High Court of Azad
Jammu & Kashmir for transmission to its Courts. These
Commissions and Letters of Request must, on no
account, be transmitted through the Resident in Azad
Jammu & Kashmir.

General

District Judges have accordingly been directed to

communicate these instructions to Presiding Officers of
Civil Courts serving under them, and, since the
arrangement is subject to revision if either party find
reason for dissatisfaction in its working, to watch how the
experiment works.
 Vol: I Chapter 10 (PART-E)
RECIPROCAL ARRANGEMENTS
WITH PROVINCES
CHANNEL OF COMMUNICATION:
It has been decided that whenever it is necessary for
the Civil Courts in the Punjab (any other province) to
take evidence of a witness residing in other Provinces
mentioned in Column 3 of the schedule following,
Letter of Request (not a Commission) should be
transmitted though the District Judge concerned to the
Lahore, who will then forward them to the Province
concerned for transmission to the proper Court in the
Province, Letters of Request in respect of the
Provinces mentioned in Part-II of the Schedule will be
forwarded through the Punjab Government. The Court
in the Province to which the Letter of Request should
be addressed should be the Court shown against the
name of each in the schedule.
CHANNEL OF COMMUNICATION:

Letters of Request will be returned, after execution,

through the same channel, i.e. through the Punjab
Province as the case may be.
(Note: In all the provinces, High Courts are
functioning now)

WRIT NOT TO BE SENT DIRECT TO COURT:

On no account should these Letters of Request be

transmitted direct to any Court in these Provinces.

DITTO:

Similarly, Letters of Request issued by these

Provinces for execution in the Punjab will be
forwarded to the District Judges concerned by the
respective District, through the Punjab Government as
the case may be, and shall be returned in the same
manner after execution.
 Vol: I Chapter 10 (PART-F)
Commissions and Letters of Request for the
examination of witnesses in Foreign Countries
Letters of Request is preferable:
There are two methods of obtaining evidence in a foreign
country, namely, by a Letter of Request addressed to a foreign
Court or by means of a Commission appointing an individual
to take the evidence thus constituting him pro tanto an officer
of the Court. It may be noted that the Commissioner has
ordinarily no power to compel the attendance of a witness. He
can only invite the witness to present himself and give
evidence. If the witness declines to do so, the Commissioner is
helpless. If, on the other hand, recourse is had to a Letter of
Request addressed to the foreign Court concerned, the latter
can, if necessary, exercise its power of compulsion.

Further a Commissioner can record evidence only if

the local law of the country where the Commission is sent
permits the Commissioner to record evidence.

It will appear from the above that a Letter of Request

is ordinarily the more appropriate method in the case of
foreign countries.
CHANNEL OF COMMUNICATION:
Commissions and Letters of
Request intended for execution in
foreign and Commonwealth
countries should be forwarded
through the District Judge, to the
Registrar, High Court of West
Pakistan Lahore (Peshawar High
Court Peshawar) and not direct.
 LETTERS
(High Court Rules & Orders
Vol: IV Chapter 19-A)
1. LETTERS:
b. Every letter should have at the commencement its
number, the name (when possible) as well as the
office of both the writer and the officer addressed,
and the place from which it is written, and its date.
This rule applies as well to copies as to original
documents.
c. Every letter should refer to the last preceding
letter, if any, on the subject and also give, either
as a heading or on the margin, a brief description
of the subject; the subject in respect of a judicial
case pertaining to the court which is being
addressed, will be the title of the case (i.e. the
class, number and year of the case and the
parties’ names). This will also be done when
reminders are issued to facilitate the quick tracing
of cases.
2. MARGIN, SIZE AND FILING:
Correspondence should ordinarily be conducted on the 3/4
margin system. The docket size should ordinarily be used.
For fillng of correspondence the flat file system will be
found to be the most convenient (the size of half-sheet of
foolscap).

3. All letters received from mercantile bodies, firms, private

individuals, etc., not under Government, should be replied
to unless they are in reply to communications from the
Court or office itself and call for no further action. If there is
likely to be any delay in disposing of such letters, an ad
interim acknowledgment should be sent as soon as
possible. The acknowledgment should ordinarily issue in
the form below:

I am directed to acknowledge the receipt of your letter

have the honour
No.___________ dated the __________

A reply will follow.

 MESSAGE
Practically speaking, due to limited and meagre resources and
time constraints, I could only convey the basis of linguistic skills in
official communications, it being very vast and complex subject. It is for
this reason that many writers and linguists found and observed that
most of the people express an interest in language, they know less about
it than about almost any other aspects of their lives. We use language
almost every moment of the waking day for every imaginable purpose.
We declare war and negotiate peace through language, we use it in
shops for buying, in schools for teaching, in mosques for praying. We
sue each other in courts about what we have said, we think about the
meaning of life. We write countless books, newspapers, diaries,
prescriptions, and letters; almost every human activity involves
language directly or indirectly, yet most people are as unaware of their
language as they are of the beating of their hearts. Nevertheless it is an
hard fact that science and technological advancement in the linguistic
skills and means of communications whether official or private has
reduced the distance converting and transforming the Global World into
a Global Village. So success of an Administrator/Manager in an
organization mainly depends as to how an Administrator or Manager
applies such linguistic skills and means in communications, it being the
back bone of a dynamic organization.