By Amir Wasim

Dawn January 28th, 2015

Senator Haji Adeel.—Online/File

ISLAMABAD: The question of language has once again started to cause division and distrust between the nationalist and mainstream political parties.

The fourth time rejection of a bill seeking the status of national language for regional languages by a parliamentary committee in as many years is now being seen by the nationalist parties as a “deliberate attempt” by the PPP and the PML-N to maintain their “hegemonic control” over the country’s affairs.

Take a look: National status for all languages demanded

Senator Haji Adeel of the Awami National Party (ANP), whose bill seeking the status of national language for Pushto, Punjabi, Seraiki, Sindhi and Balochi faced a strong opposition at a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Law and Justice last week, accused the leadership of the two main parties of following “double standards” in their approach to provincial autonomy.

Talking to Dawn, he said he was surprised to see the PPP members in the committee opposing the bill because he was not expecting it from the party which always talked about provincial autonomy and promotion of regional culture.

Over the past few years, he said, the nationalist parties and also some individuals from the PPP and the PML-N had tried to seek the status of national language for the regional languages. But the attempts could not succeed due to lack of commitment from the top leadership of the PPP and the PML-N, the two parties which had ruled the country for most of the period.

In this regard, the ANP senator said, the nationalist parties had made a serious attempt at the time when the parliamentary committee headed by PPP’s Raza Rabbani was busy in drafting the 18th Constitution Amendment Bill in 2010. But the move received a strong opposition.

He said there were a number of countries in the world which had more than one national language.

Interviews with the main office-bearers of the two parties indicate that the PPP seems to be ready to support such a move in future but the ruling PML-N is still rigid over the issue.

PML-N’s Secretary General Iqbal Zafar Jhagra claimed that the issue had remained under discussion in the party at different levels, but a majority in the party believed that only Urdu should be national language of the country.

He said the PML-N acknowledged the importance of the regional languages, but it believed that the languages should be promoted only at the provincial level. “You cannot declare them national languages,” he said, adding that “like the issue of new provinces, it is also a controversial matter.”

On the other hand, Additional Secretary General of the PPP, Raza Rabbani, said that he personally believed that the country could not have a national culture without promoting the regional cultural. He said the PPP had the credit of promoting regional languages by establishing institutions like Lok Virsa.

Answering a question, he admitted that the issue was raised by the nationalist parties at a time when the parliamentary committee was busy in drafting the historic 18th Constitution Amendment Bill. But he had himself requested the smaller parties not to make it an issue at that time because they were busy in developing a national consensus on other contentious matters relating to provincial autonomy.

Mr Rabbani said the PPP was not against the move to give the status of national language to the regional languages, and it would definitely come out with a clear stance when the issue would come up again in parliament.

Senator Mohammad Ali Rind of the Balochistan National Party-Awami said he could not understand why the two main parties were opposing such a vital move.

Senator Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shah of the PML-F advised the nationalist parties to jointly try to persuade the leadership of the mainstream parties to get the language bill passed through parliament. Such important bills could not be passed without a national consensus since it required a two-third majority in parliament, he said.

It may be recalled that the standing committees of the National Assembly and the Senate have rejected four similar bills since 2011, believing that such a law would further divide the already polarised society.

The National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Law and Justice has thrice rejected such private member bills -- twice it was moved by Marvi Memon and once by Nawab Yousuf Talpur.

Ms Memon had initially moved the bill in 2008 when she was a PML-Q MNA, and again in February last year as a PML-N lawmaker. But she did not get any response from the committee headed by the member from her own party despite her claim that she had moved the bill after getting a nod from Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

Ms Memon had moved the bill with nine other members of the PML-N seeking to substitute Article 251 of the Constitution which presently declares Urdu as the national language.

The bill had called for granting the status of national language to Balti, Brahvi, Shina and Hindko besides the five main regional languages.

Opposing the bill, a senior official of the law ministry, retired Justice Raza Khan, had said that it would not serve any purpose when it was read in the light of Article 28 of the constitution, which clearly spoke of preservation of language, script or culture.

He was of the view that “one nation should have one language.”

Ms Memon’s bill was opposed also by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement abstained from the vote.

Nawab Yousuf Talpur of the PPP vowed to again move the bill in the National Assembly.

He claimed that he had persuaded the then prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani in favour of the language bill, who had assured him that a special constitutional committee would be formed for this purpose. But Mr Gilani could not do so after facing a disqualification from the Supreme Court.

Mr Talpur said he had also made similar attempts during the era of prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, but he did not get any positive result.