Native tongues

This refers to the letter ‘Urdu’s decline’ (January 17, 2024) by Zainab Khalid. I disagree with the writer concerning the importance of Urdu. To be realistic, Urdu is not the first language of most communities in Pakistan. It would probably be much more practical for Pakistanis to study their native languages and have English as an official ‘lingua franca’ as it is the main global language used today.

However, like Ancient Greek and Latin in Europe, we can also have additional languages taught in schools, such as Arabic and/or Farsi. I would strongly urge our political leaders, who will soon be coming into parliament after the February 2024 elections, to give serious thought to these suggestions.

Ilyas M B Khan

Mansehra