PHC asks federal, KP govts to explain non-implementation of Urdu as official language

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Tuesday directed the federal and provincial governments to explain why the Urdu language was not being implemented as official language.

A two-member bench comprising Chief Justice Yahya Afridi and Justice Ikramullah Khan issued a notice to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government through chief secretary and federal government through Ministry of Law and Justice and Parliamentary Affairs.

The court issued directions in a writ petition of a senior lawyer Muhammad Khursheed Khan.The petitioner sought directives for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government and high court registrar to declare and implement Urdu as the official language of the province. Abdul Rauf Rohaila appeared for the petitioner in the case.In the seven-page writ petition written in Urdu, the petitioner sought directions from the court to order the provincial government to implement Articles 251 and 28 of the Constitution.

It also called for the implementation of the Supreme Court decision’s regarding making Urdu the official language of the country. The petition said the Urdu language was spoken in all parts of the country.He pointed out that as per the 1962 and 1973 Constitutions of Pakistan, Urdu was declared as national language.

He said the National Assembly, Senate and provincial assemblies had passed several resolutions that Urdu would be used as official language in all the government departments, Supreme Court, High Courts and subordinate courts of the country.The petition noted that for the first time in 2004 the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government tried to implement Urdu as official language when the chief minister issued a notification to the departments, but it wasn’t implemented due to bureaucratic hurdles.He argued that a small segment of the society understood English. In 2015, the Supreme Court directed the federal and provincial governments to adopt Urdu as official language. The apex court directed the government to fulfill its constitutional obligations by adopting Urdu as official language.He said that majority of the civil servants, who had received education in English, were not well-versed in English.The petitioner said Article 251 of the Constitution stated that the national language of Pakistan was Urdu.