KARACHI: On the occasion of the Independence Day, there is a dire need to further increase national cohesion amongst the federation units and its main vehicle would be to create a ‘Pakistani language’ comprised on words and phrases of all our regional languages with our national language, Urdu, as the base of the proposed language.

This was expressed by Pasban Democratic Party (PDP) Chairman Altaf Shakoor in connection with the Independence Day here Sunday. He said the linguistic issue is the most sensitive issue of Pakistan, adding we lost our East Pakistan because our political leadership of that time failed to resolve the pressing linguistic issue in our country. He said ongoing undercurrents of anti-Center tendencies in provinces like Balochistan could be only tackled when we give our nation a common Pakistani language, which would be a regionalized version of our national language, Urdu.

He said creation of new languages is a successful experience, practically shown in different parts of the world. In this regard he gave example of the rebirth of Israeli language, Hebrew. He said this process began on October 13th 1881, as Eliezer Ben-Yehuda and his friends agreed to exclusively speak Hebrew in their conversations.

The process of the Hebrew language revival began on October 13th 1881, as Eliezer Ben-Yehuda and his friends agreed to exclusively speak Hebrew in their conversations. As a result, the language, which had not been spoken as a mother tongue since the second century CE, once again became the national language of Israel.

Altaf Shakoor suggested that should be one standard Alphabet and script for all languages of Pakistan, based on Urdu script. He said present Urdu Alphabet should be expanded to enable it pronouncing the complicated words of all Pakistani languages including Sindhi and Pashto. He said the proposed Pakistani language should be used in official correspondence, textbooks and it should be adopted by the national and regional media.

He said that this is an abstract concept and it would be hardly digested in initial stages, but if the media, intelligentsia and civil society supported it, it could be easily and practically implemented, albeit with the support of federal and provincial governments.

Altaf Shakoor said that let’s give the Pakistani nation the gift of the new idea of making of a Pakistani language, which would greatly help resolve complicated and politically sensitive national language question in Pakistan.