NEW DELHE There has been a resurgence of the Punjabi language culture in Pakistan which had curiously got buried following the creation of the Muslim State in 1947.

The demand for declaring Punjabi as a national language along with Sindhi Bauchi and Pashto has become lower.

Protagonists of Punjabi have even opposed the continuation of Urdu as the official language of Pakistan on the plea that it is being spoken only by four per cent of Pakistanis and it should be declared as a language of coordination they argue.

This was disclosed by a former Senator and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader Fakhar Zaman enroute to Chandigarh in connection with a Punjabi cultural program there.

Fakhar Zaman who is himself an established Punjabi writer said eminent writers academicians lawyers and journalists had constituted a Punjab Action Committee for the promotion of the Punjabi language and culture in Pakistan and to secure a due place for the language in the official hierarchy.

Fakhar Zaman who is the chief of the cultural wing of the PPP said that a movement was afoot for the Punjabi language which is the mother tongue of about six crore Punjabis constituting 58% of Pakistans population.

He deplored that Punjabi was not being used as a medium of instruction even for primary education as an official language in lower courts and conducting of official business at the lower-level in Pakistan.

It was ironic that Punjabi was offered as a subject only at the university level he said.

He said there was a chair of Punjabi language at the Punjab University Lahore and some students had also acquired Ph.D degrees in the language.

Citing the proceedings of the Punjabi Action Committee which met last month in Lahore wader his chairmanship Fakhar Zaman said the meeting had adopted resolutions demanding that Punjabi be introduced as an elective subject at secondary schools and college levels and Punjabi teachers be appointed in all the educational institutions.

Fakhar Zaman who is a former PPP chief of the Punjab province said Punjab Chief Minister Ghulam Haider Wyne had declined to consider the introduction of Punjabi as a medium of instruction in primary schools even when UNESCO called for it recently.

Accusing the ruling Islami Jambhoori Ittchad (IJI) Government of Pakistan of “suppressing cultures of the soil and promoting an elitist culture.” Fakhar Zaman said it was the JI which had opposed the idea of that Punjabi be spoken in the Punjab Assembly.

He recalled that the PPP Government for the first time in 1989 had proposed that all primary education in the country be imparted in native languages and it was the then Chief Minister Nawaz Sharif who had out rightly dismissed it.

In this context Fakhar Zaman cited the recent controversy over Punjabi which arose when former Ameer of Jamaat-e-Islami Mian Tufail Mohammad publicly stated that “Punjabi is a language of abuses and one who hurls more abuses can become a greater writer.”

He said “if Punjabi goes by Mian Tafails definition great Punjabi writers like Shah Hussain Balle Shah Baba Farid Mian Mohammad Waris Shah and other sufi poets have written nothing but abuses.” “In fact Mian Tufail and other fanatic Mullahs of his silk have a deep distaste for sufi poets because the later openly exposed mullahism religious bigotry and hypocrisy” he said.

Fakhar Zaman said about 20 Punjabi organizations met in Lahore and sought an “unconditional apology” from Mian Tufail for “indulging in vituperative and vulgar talk against Punjabi language and culture.”

Further explaining why Mian Tufall himself a Punjabi originally hailing from Jalandhar spoke against Punjabi Fakhar Zaman said Mian Tufails remark was not his personal thought but there was a collective psychology behind it “which reflected the fundamentalist and obscurantist thoughts of the Jamat-I-Istami.”

The Jamat-I-Islami had been a part of the ruling IJI alliance but recently pulled out of it on the issue of the Nawaz Sharif governments refusal to extend support to the Gulbuddin Hikmatyar faction of Afghan Mujahideens

Fakhar-Zaman also accused the ruling IJl alliance of promoting “Punjab chauvinism and hegemony” which he said “is a conspiracy against the cultural integration of the country’s four provinces.”

He said they were also demanding that the Punjab language be given 50% time on radio and TV programs.

However Fakhar Zaman called for the continuation of Persian script for Punjabi in Pakistani as against Gurmukhi script used for the language in India on the plea that “the script controversy” if it arose would do more harm to the language.

He felt that there was substance in the apprehension expressed by Punjabi writers of both Pakistan and India that after some time Punjabis across the international border would not be able to understand each other’s language.

Punjabi in India has accepted Sanskrit words while the language in Pakistan is under the over-bearing influence of Persian he said.

For this Fakhar Zaman suggested that there should be an effort to educate more Pakistani Punjabis in Gurmukhi script while more Indian Punjabis should learn the Persian script.

Article extracted from this publication >> June 5, 1992