Determining the Status and Use of Languages Spoken in Pakistan
Determining the Status and Use of Languages Spoken in Pakistan

Summary/Abstract: Developing economies in South and South East Asia are faced with numerous challenges socioeconomically, politically and culturally. The multilingual and multi-ethnic makeup of these societies including Pakistan shows a marked confusion to come to terms with a uniform language policy. At the root of this confusion there is, on the one hand, a growing ascendency of English globally and, on the other hand, the downward trend or at least stagnation in local languages for the failure of these states to have comprehensive strategies to render them vital. Language planning and determining the value of local languages in Pakistan has always been a point of debate in the political, legal and constitutional history of the country. In the pre-partition era, the sub-continental history was marked by Urdu-Hindi controversy, while after 1947, the latter was replaced by Bengali that remained a great source of unrest and ultimately proved an impetus in the division of Pakistan and Bangladesh into two separate countries (Mustafa, 2011). While the country is still grappling with the issue, it is assumed that revisiting its own past policies and the conscious efforts of Malaysia, Switzerland, Nigeria and Canada shall serve as a roadmap and shall inform the stakeholders to avoid time-tested mistakes. This study, thus, takes into consideration the history of language planning in Pakistan and presents cases of other countries that have already embarked on such policies to varying degree of successes.

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