AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
The Punjabi Language Movement's demands, aims and objectives are stated in the movement's 21 point's.
Punjabi, the worlds tenth most spoken language, has become an endangered language in Pakistan as a result of systematic, state-sponsored ethnic and linguistic cleansing. Official discrimination and exploitation have seriously threatened their very existence. The threat to the existence of our mother tongue and to the integrity of our motherland, Punjab, is deadly. The Punjabi Language Movement (PLM)
stands for Punjabi language rights and for the integrity of motherland Punjab. PLM firmly believes that the Punjabi language cannot survive without state protection, official patronage, and its adaptation as an educational and official language of the Punjab. Therefore, the Punjabi Language Movement, with the support of the masses, is determined to secure, protect, and enforce the Punjabi language’s constitutional, democratic, legal, linguistic, and cultural rights through peaceful means and struggle. PLM is committed to implementing its aims and objectives with the following 17-point agenda:
1) Punjabi be introduced as the medium of instruction from primary to intermediate level in the province of Punjab and similarly declared, enforced and implemented as the sole official, judicial, and parliamentary language of the province by the government of Punjab.
2)Punjabi Language Act must be introduced in the Punjab assembly.
Punjabi Language Movement (PLM) demands from the provincial government of Punjab that “The Punjabi Language Act” be introduced in the Punjab assembly as a law defining and declaring Punjabi as the medium of instruction/educational and official (Judicial, legislature, administration) language of the provincial government and the province of Punjab. Govt of Punjab must ensure and guarantee the genuine, uninterrupted promotion and preservation of Punjabi language, literature ,art and culture including the scientific research and modern education in mother tongue. And the act may officially include ,recognize, adapted, promote and preserve the Standardized Western Punjabi Dialect (Lehndi Punjabi) as the official standardized Punjabi dialect under the law.
3) Punjab Assembly Must Enact The Charter of The Punjabi Language;
The Punjabi Language Movement (PLM) demands from both the government of Punjab and the Punjab Assembly to enact or legislate The Charter of The Punjabi Language Rights to enforce, preserve, promote, and revitalise the Punjabi language for the purpose of linguistic officialization of the province of Punjab, including its educational system, civil service, judiciary, enterprises, legislature, administration, administration and media. The Charter must guarantee to protect the constitutional, legal, democratic, and birth rights of the majority Punjabi-speaking population of the Punjab. In addition, under the charter, the provincial government must undertake to declare, enforce,
promote, practice, and preserve Punjabi as the normal and everyday language of work, instruction, communication, the legislature, judiciary, media, science, ethnology, commerce, business, and entertainment in the Punjab.
4)Punjab government must establish Punjabi Language Authority now
The government of the province of Punjab, through the Punjab Assembly, must pass an act to establish the Punjabi Language Authority as an autonomous institution for the use of Punjabi language, teaching its promotion, preservation, and officialization, including the promotion of Shahmukhi script with its standardised Western dialect.
5) Appointment of a Language Commissioner
The Punjabi Language Movement calls upon the government of Punjab to appoint a Language Commissioner with a fully functional secretariat as a watchdog to monitor the government initiative, including the judiciary, legislature, administration, and all the other Governmental, semi- governmental, private authorities, educational institutions, organizations, and departments directly or
indirectly involved in promoting, preserving, and implementing the Punjabi language and its educational system
6) Official Discrimination Against the Punjabi Language Must End.
The East India Company’s one hundred seventy-one-year-old continued official discriminatory policy and ban on imparting basic education in Punjabi must end now. The systematic, state-sponsored ethnic and linguistic cleansing of the majority Punjabi language must be stopped now. Enough is enough. The fundamental legal, constitutional, linguistic, and cultural rights of the majority Punjabi- speaking nation must be restored. The undeclared state-sponsored ethnic and linguistic cleansing, exploitation, and discrimination against the Punjabi-speaking majority must be stopped. The dual educational system must be abolished. The provincial government must ensure free education for all from primary to intermediate levels.
7)The Urdu Language Act 2022, a mother-tongue-killing, unlawful, and unconstitutional black law, passed by the Punjab legislature on November 16, 2022, needs to be repealed right away.
There is no place in Punjab for the mother-tongue-killing, illegal, and unconstitutional Urdu Language Act 2022, which was passed on November 16, 2022, by the treasonous Punjab Assembly, its mother-tongue-hating members, and the Punjab government. It is absolutely
unacceptable. Whatever happens, the mother tongue-killing black law known as The Urdu Language Act 2022" will be vehemently opposed, protested, and set on fire throughout Punjab. The protest by the Punjabi Language Movement will continue until the Punjab Assembly repeals and replaces the killer law with the Punjabi Language Act.
8)The Federation must end the discriminatory Urdu Only policy against minority languages.
The Punjabi Language Movement does not recognise Urdu Only as the state language of Pakistan. Urdu should not be the only state language of Pakistan, as Punjabi, being the majority language, should be given the status of the state language or official language of Pakistan. The federal government must amend the constitution to enact or legislate the Federal Language Act to require the use of Punjabi as a medium of instruction in federal government affairs, as well as its use in the legislature, judiciary, administration, media, currency, CNIC, and stamps. The Federation must end its discriminatory Urdu Only policy against Pakistan’s majority language.
9) Future Punjabi Generations must be scientific and technological, and Punjab must be prepared for digital supremacy and the quantum revolution.
On the model of NASA, the Punjab government must establish Punjab Aeronautics and Space Administration University as an autonomous agency responsible for the civil space program, as well as aeronautics and space research, with the cooperation of the federal government, Punjab’s academia, and the private sector. The government of Punjab must all of a sudden set up Punjabi language science and technology institutes, colleges, and universities. A university for space research, science, and technology must be established. New modern
cities will be built all over Punjab, including ready-to-go plans for space settlements.
10) Punjabi language, literature, art, and culture must be officially preserved, promoted, and protected.
In order to protect, promote, preserve, and promote the scientific development of Punjabi language, literature, arts, and culture, to provide modern education in Punjabi, and to extend official patronage, the following institutions must be established by the government of Punjab:
i)Academy for the Promotion of Punjabi Language, Literature, Art, and Culture
(ii) Punjabi Language Education Ministry
(iii) Punjabi language policy and planning commission
(vi) Punjabi Language Authority,
(v) Punjabi language text book board.
(vi) Punjabi Academy of Letters
11) Punjabi University should be established with regional campuses.
A department of Punjabialogy should be established at the University of Punjab, Harrapa Civilization University, and Texila University in Lahore, Multan, Sargodha, Mianwali, Sahiwal, Gujranwala, Bahawalpur, Gujarat, Faisalabad, Bahawalnager, Bahawalnager Khanewal, Khanewal, Dera Ghazi Khan, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, and Chakwal.
12) The Fundamental Right to Speak and Be Heard in One Mother TongueThe right to speak and be heard in one's mother tongue is a fundamental natural, constitutional, and birth right.
The provincial judicial system, civil administration, the health services and social services, the public utility enterprises, the professional corporations, the associations of employees, and all enterprises doing business in Punjab should be restricted by law in Punjab to communicate with the people of Punjab in Punjabi. Punjabis must have the right to speak Punjabi in deliberative assemblies. Punjabi workers should have the right to carry on their activities in Punjabi. Punjabi consumers in Punjab should have the right to be informed and served in Punjabi. Punjabis should have the right to receive services from federal departments in Punjabi and should be heard before the courts in their mother tongue by law.
13) The PLM strongly opposes the division of Punjab.
PLM strictly believes that Punjabi/Sapt Sindhu has been an indivisible linguistic, cultural, social,
administrative, geographical, and national unit for centuries. All those who live in Punjab are Punabis only. Punjab is characterised by its historical, cultural, economic, linguistic, administrative, and geographical identities. The Punjabi Language Movement strongly rejects the division of the Punjab under any pretext, be it administrative, racial, lingual, or other. Division of Punjab is illegal, unconstitutional, and a severe violation of the Lahore Resolution 1940, the Indian Independence Act 1947, and the Two-Nation Theory. The Commission for the Division of Punjab must be abolished, as its creation is illegal and unconstitutional. And the South Punjab Seraiaki Province Secretariat& ill- intentioned, illegal, unconstitutional, and hate-filled nature meant it had to be shut down.The Punjab assembly, national assembly, and senate must withdraw without further delay all the illegal and unconstitutional resolutions they have passed concerning the criminalised division of Punjab, as they don’t have a mandate from the majority Punjabi-speaking population to divide Punjab or to pass such
resolutions. Feudal regime: the feudal system must be completely abolished and land reforms must be enforced in south Punjab. large land holdings be divided and distributed among the landless peasants and tenants, doing the right things. Just divide large land holdings in South Punjab, not the Punjab.
14) KPK must be split into three provinces, and Hazara and FATA must be established as new provinces simultaneously with KPK.
15)Punjabi Cultural DayTo Be Celebrated Every Year On Wesakh 01/April 13
The Punjabi Language Movement hereby declares Wesakh 01 as thePunjabi Cultural Day.In order to promote and safeguard Punjabi culture, the Punjabi Language Movement celebrated the first ever Punjabi Cultural Day in the known history of Punjab on Wesakh, January 13, 2011. PLM hereby demands from the government of Punjab that it declare Wesakh 01 officially asPunjabi Cultural Day. Furthermore, Wesakh First should be declared an official and public holiday at the provincial level.
16) The systematic and engineered census fraud against Punjab must stop immediately. Since the creation of Pakistan, official discrimination
and exploitation, ethnic and linguistic cleansing through engineered censuses against the majority Punjabi-speaking population, must end.The government of Punjab must initiate cultural awareness among the people of Punjab to read, write, and speak their own mother tongue. PLM requests that the Punjab government launch a campaign to alert and appeal to Punjabis to list Punjabi as their mother tongue on the census form during the upcoming census.State-sponsored fraudulent methods being applied through an engineered census process to convert the majority illiterate Punjabi population into Urdu must be stopped,
17) Its time to act. It&s time to change. The 75-year-old official systematic census fraud in Punjab intended to ethnically and linguistically cleanse the majority Punjabi population in order to convert it in to a minority must be stopped immediately.
Federal and provincial governments must frame necessary laws to implement and enforce the
following acts:
a) NADRA must start issuing the national identity cards in Punjabi. The Federal Government should instruct NADRA to start issuing the National Identity Cards in Punjabi in the province of Punjab.
b) Public announcements at public places such as PTCL and mobile phone service providers customer services at airports, railway stations, bus stands, banks, and markets, and sermons and khutbas in mosques in Punjab, must strictly be made and delivered in Punjabi.
c) Declare official holidays to celebrate the days of Punjabi heroes and Sufi saints.
d) Allocate 10% of Punjab’s GDP for the development, promotion, and preservation of the Punjabi language and culture.
e) Punjabs educational institutions be provided with the required Punjabi language teaching staff and faculties at the earliest.
f) Pakistan Television and Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation will launch full-time Punjabi language FM and TV stations.g) Khyber Pukhtoon Khawans Punjabi and Hindi-speaking areas are merged with Punjab.h) The ancient Punjabi cultural heritage and historical places of Punjab,
such as Harappa, Taxila, and Lahore Fort, among others, spread all over Punjab
18) Demanded Complete Provincial Autonomy For All Provinces
PLM hereby demands all the provinces be given complete provincial autonomy. Federalism that deprives provinces of their constitutional, legal, democratic, human rights, social justice, resources, linguistic and cultural rights, liberties, and freedom violates the constitution of the
country. In addition, civil and political rights, being the essential components of a constitutional democracy, must be protected, and the federation must ensure one’s entitlement to participate in the civil and political life of the society and the state without discrimination or repression.
19) It is imperative to immediately put an end to the endless killing of Punjabis and the disappearance of Baluch activists in Baluchistan.
It is the legal and constitutional responsibility of the federal and provincial government to stop at once The targeted slaughter of Punjabis in Balochistan and their eviction from the province . Their lives and property must be protected in a similar way to how the Punjab government protects the lives and property of Baluchi-speaking settlers in south Punjab and Baluch students Punjab’s educational institutions. Similar to this, the missing Baluch nationalists, activists, young people, and political workers must be located right away and put back together with their families as soon as possible. Federal government must stop the ongoing victimization and disappearance of Baluch nationalists, activists, young people, and political workers.
20) That Sindhi, Punjabi, Pushto, and Balochi be declared national languages.
The Federal Government must declare Sindhi, Punjabi, Pushto, and Balochi as the national languages of Pakistan. The Constitution of Pakistan shall be amended to include and declare Sindhi, Punjabi, Pushto, and Balochi, the majority languages of all the four federating units, as the national languages. The federal government will establish a National Language and Culture Commission to promote Sindhi, Punjabi, Pushto, and Balochi languages on a national level, as well as inter-cultural harmony. The Federal Government should set up a Federal Sindhi University, a Federal Punjabi University, a Federal Pushto University, and a Federal Balochi University in Islamabad on the model of the Federal Urdu University.
21) The significance of the English language cannot be overstated.
One hundred and seventy-one years of state-sponsored systematic Urduization of Punjab and ethnic and linguistic cleaning of Punjabi have converted the Punjabi-speaking population into the most useless, unskilled, illetrate, uncivilized, inhuman, and language-less linguistic slave nation in the world. It is a brutal truth that Urdu has discriminated, exploited, and deprived the Punjabi language and people generation after generation of their ancient civilization, language, culture, knowledge, learning, creativity, wisdom, liberty, and freedom, and has hindered and stripped them of their natural talent, creativity, and war craft and abilities from creating scientists, statesmen, strategists, researchers, thinkers, reformers, philosophers, planners, warriors, writers, poets, artisans, and world-class literature, poetry, and art. The Urduization of Punjab has deprived Punjabis of possessing the most important and scientific skills in modern society, vital
for development, modernization, science, technology, research, prosperous jobs, and a bright future, and it has turned the land of five rivers into the Stone Age. As a global language, English is used in international communication, the media, the internet, science, technology, scientific research, multiple cultures, tourism, hospitality, world literature, business, trade, industry, aviation, computers, diplomacy, tourism, and the worlds most prestigious universities and educational institutions. Many countries include English in their school curricula, and children are starting to learn English at a younger and younger age. Along with providing education in the mother tongue, the Punjab government must ensure that Punjabi children receive English language instruction.After Punjabi, English should and must be taught in Punjabi schools as a compulsory subject. All Punjabi children must be provided all the facilities to learn and master the English language along with their mother tongue at a young age. In Punjab, it must be clearly understood that Punjabi and English are the only two languages Punjabis and their future generations must learn to live with. Other optional languages to be learned at the intermediate
level may include French, Chinese, Arabic, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, Sindhi, and Balochi.
PLM is committed to working to promote Punjabi language, literature, arts, and culture at all levels, including provincial, national, and international. To create awareness among the people of Punjab about their language, culture, and history, PLM intends to organize or sponsor public gatherings, educational and cultural activities, seminars, conferences, lectures, festivals, art performances, and Punjabi cultural days at the provincial and national level. I appeal to the people of Punjab, and especially the younger generation, the sons and daughters of Punjab, to come forward to join and support the Punjabi Language Movement’s 16-point agenda. PLM membership is open to all Punjabis, regardless of their political affiliations. The Punjabi language has the power and strength to keep Punjab united and to take its people out of illiteracy. PLM is here with the clear message that Punjab Wants Its Mother Tongue Back. We have to save the
Punjabi language, the Punjabi nation, the Punjabi culture, and our beloved mother land, Punjab. I appeal to all the Punjab-based political parties, main stream parties, print and electronic media intellectuals, political leadership, social activists, journalists, human rights advocates, progressive forces, civil society, lawyers, and conscious citizens, columnists, political activists, social movements, literary and cultural groups, organizations, and the print and electronic media to support PLMs 16-point agenda in order to secure the constitutional, legal, and birth rights of Punjabi, which is the mother tongue of more than 112 million people in Punjab. The very existence of our mother tongue is seriously threatened. Therefore, Punjabi needs your support to survive. Punjabi language is a fundamental and valued element of Punjabi culture and society, and there is an urgency to preserve it. Both the federal and provincial governments must ensure that Punjabi language rights are reinforced as per the constitution and as a birth right.
Chaudhry Nazeer Kahut
Founder and Convener of the Punjabi Language Movement
Chief Organiser Punjab Bachao Tehreek
Email: nazeerkahut@gmail.com
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