The Charter of the Punjabi Language Movement -20 Points Demands Submitted to Government of Pakistan and Punjab Government
The Charter of the Punjabi Language Movement -20 Points Demands Submitted to Government of Pakistan and Punjab Government
It’s the most fundamental legal,constitutional,democratic,huaman and birth right of more 130 million native Punjabi speaking majority of Pakistan to implement and enforce their mother tongue Punjabi as the medium of instruction and as the sole official and judicial language in their homeland the province of Punjab.The Charter of the Punjabi Language is a proposed set of laws that should be adopted by the Punjab government and legislature without any further delay. The goal of the law is to preserve the quality and status of the Punjabi language and to stop the ethnic, linguistic and cultural cleansing of the silent majority of the country. The Charter makes Punjabi the province’s sole education, official and judicial language when it comes to the provincial government ,institutions, education, media, culture, communications, commerce and the workplace.
Punjabi is the 10 th most spoken language in the world and is the mother tongue of Pakistan’s 62% population. However, due to the never-ending systematic state- sponsored ethnic and linguistic cleansing since 1849-2022, Urdu has become an endangered language in its birthplace, Punjab and Pakistan. Official discrimination and exploitation have severely threatened its 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 the motherland Punjab. PLM firmly believes that Punjabi language cannot survive without state protection and official patronage and its adaption as an educational and official language of the Punjab. Therefore, the Punjabi Language Movement, with the support of the masses, is determined and committed to secure and protect Punjabi nation’s fundamental legal, constitutional, democratic, human, linguistic, and cultural rights and complete provincial autonomy by implementing its seventeen point agenda/program (aims and objectives) through peaceful means and struggle.
1).Punjab Assembly Must Enact The Charter of The Punjabi \ Language
The Punjabi Language Movement (PLM) demands from the Federal government, the government of Punjab and the Punjab Assembly to enact and legislate The Charter Of The Punjabi Language to enforce, preserve, promote and revitalise the Punjabi Language for the purpose of the linguistic officialisation of the province of Punjab, including its educational system,civil service, judiciary ,enterprises, legislature ,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 the Punjabi language as the normal and everyday language of work, instruction, media, communication, legislature, judiciary, science, ethnology, trade, commerce, business, and entertainment of the Punjab. PLM demands from the Punjab government to implement federal government educational policy and a Supreme Court/High Court order to declare Punjabi as the medium of instruction in the province at all levels. Since all the consecutive governments have intentionally failed to implement federal educational policy, now it’s the federal government's constitutional and legal responsibility to enforce and declare the Punjabi language as the medium of instruction and as the sole official and judicial language of the province.
2) The Punjabi Language Act or Punjab Official Language Act be introduced as legislation in the Punjab assembly.
PLM demands from the provincial government of Punjab that The Punjabi Language Act or Punjab Official Language Act be introduced in the Punjab assembly for the purpose of legislation as a law defining and declaring the Punjabi language as the medium of instruction/educational and sole official (judicial, legislature, and administration) language of the provincial government and the province of Punjab. The Punjab government must ensure and guarantee the genuine, continuous promotion and preservation of Punjabi language, literature, art, and culture, as well as scientific research and modern education in the mother tongue. Furthermore, the act may include, recognize, adapt, promote, and preserve the Standardized Western (Legenda) Punjabi Dialect as the laws official standardized Punjabi dialect.
3). Establishment of a Punjabi Language Authority.
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 the Shahmukhi script with its standardised Western Dialect.
4). 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 watch dog to monitor the government initiative, including judiciary, legislature ,administration, all the other governmental , semi-governmental, and private authorities, educational institutions , organizations, and departments directly or indirectly involved in promoting, preserving, and implementing the Punjabi language and its educational system.
5) Pursuant to a Supreme Court Order, Punjabi must be implemented
as medium of instruction. The Punjabi Language Movement calls on the provincial government to implement Punjabi as the principal language of instruction in Punjab in accordance with the Supreme Court’s ruling from September 8, 2015, which mandated that Article 251 of the Constitution be put into effect. The provisions of Article 251 shall be implemented with full force and without unnecessary delay by the provincial government. And Punjabi be implemented as the medium of instruction as well as the sole and official and judicial language of Punjab.
7) The Federation must discontinue its discriminatory Urdu Only policy toward Pakistan’s majority language.
The Punjabi Language Movement does not recognize 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/official language of Pakistan. The federal government must amend the constitution to enact/legislate a Federal Language Act to enforce Punjabi language use in the federal government as well as in the ion, currency, currency, culture, currency, currency, media, education, currency, CNIC, and stamps. The Federation must end its discriminatory Urdu Only policy against Pakistan’s majority language.
8) The future of Punjab and coming Punjabi generations
Punjabi generations to come must be scientifically and technologically advanced, as well as ready for digital supremacy and the quantum revolution The Punjab government, with the cooperation of the federal government, Punjab's academia, and the private sector on the pattern of NASA, must establish Punjab Aeronautics and Space Administration University as an autonomous research agency responsible for the civil space programs as well as aeronautics and space research. All Punjabi language computer science institutions, colleges, and universities, including a university for space research, science, and technology, must be established. New modern cities will be built throughout Punjab, with ready-to-go plans for a space settlement program.
9) The Punjabi language, literature, art, and culture must be preserved, promoted, and safeguarded.
The Punjab government must establish the following institutions to protect, promote, and preserve the Punjabi language, literature, arts, and culture, as well as to provide modern education in the Punjabi language and to extend official patronage: (1) Punjabi Language, Literature, Art, and Culture Promotion Academy (2) Ministry of Punjabi Language Education (3) Punjabi Language Policy and Planning Commission (4) Punjabi Language Authority, (5) Punjabi Text Book Board Sixth, the Punjabi Academy of Letters. (7) A Punjabi University with regional campuses in Lahore, Multan, Sargodha, Mianwali, Sahiwal, Gujranwala, Bahawalpur, Gujarat, Faisalabad, Bahawalnager, Jhang, Khanewal, Dera Ghazi Khan, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Chakwal, Gujrat, and Taxila be established. (7) The University of Punjab should establish a Department of Punjabialogy. (8) Texila niversity and Harrapa Civilization University. (9) The Punjab government must also spare funds to invest in the establishment of Punjabi cultural and teaching centers in foreign countries.
10.) The right to speak and be heard in Punjabi: The right to speak and be heard in your native language.
The right to speak and to be heard in one’s mother tongue is a fundamental natural, constitutional legal, human and birth right. The provincial judicial system ,civil administration, the health 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 communicating 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.
11) WE STRONGLY SAY No To The Criminalized Division of Punjab
PLM strictly believes that Punjab(Panchanada / Sapt Sindhu) for thousands of years has been an indivisible single lingual, cultural, social, administrative , geographical, and national unit and is the ancient home of the native majority Punjabi-speaking nation. All those who live in Punjab are only Punjab. Punjabics historical, cultural, economic, linguistic, administrative, and geographical identities are distinctive. The Punjabi Language Movement strongly rejects the division of the Punjab under any pretext, be it administrative, racial, lingual or other. The Indian Independence Act 1947 and Two Nation Theory are illegal, unconstitutional, and a severe violation of the Lahore Resolution 1940. The so-called South Punjab province secretariat and the commission for the division of Punjab must be abolished immediately as their creation is illegal, unconstitutional, and a hate-based act. The Punjab assembly, national assembly, and senate must withdraw without further delay all the illegal and unconstitutional resolutions on their agenda to divide Punjab as No institution, no political party or any individual has any right or mandate from the majority Punjabi-speaking population of the province to divide their ancestors homeland Punjab or to pass such resolutions. Instead , a divisional development secretariat should be established at all divisional levels to provide equal development opportunities to all the divisions of Punjab. Also, the feudal regime The feudal system must be completely abolished and land reforms must be enforced in south Punjab. Large land holdings are divided and distributed among the local landless peasants and tenants.
12) As Punjabi Cultural Day to be observed annually on Wesakh 1.
In order to promote and safeguard Punjabi culture, the Punjabi Language Movement declared Wesakh 01 as The Punjabi Cultural Day and celebrated the first ever Punjabi Cultural Day in the known history of Punjab on Wesakh 01/13 April 2011. PLM hereby requests that the Punjab government officially declare Wesakh 01 as Punjabi Cultural Dayand should also declare Wesakh First as an official and public holiday at the provincial level. A notification entitled Punjab Culture Dayearlier issued by the Punjab government is illegal, unconstitutional, and ill intended. As the so-called Punjab culture day makes Punjab culturally a controversial province and provides space for fake/alien cultures, anti-Pakistan elements, hate mongers and vested interests to divide/bifurcate Punjab.
13) Systematic and Engineered Census Fraud against the Punjabi- speaking majority must end now.
Since the creation of Pakistan, official discrimination and exploitation, as well as ethnic and linguistic cleansing through engineered censuses, against the majority Punjabi- speaking population must end immediately. The government of Punjab must initiate cultural awareness among the people of Punjab to educate them to write Punjabi as their own mother tongue in the census during the coming census. The use of state- sponsored fraudulent methods, such as engineered census processes, to convert the illiterate majority of the Punjabi-speaking population to Urdu-speaking must be stopped.
- 14) The illegal and forced settlement of aliens in Punjab must be stopped.
PLM strongly condemns the illegal, forced, and criminalized settlement of aliens in the province of Punjab. Punjabis have long been forced to flee Sindh and Baluchistan under threat of violence. However , neither the federal nor the provincial governments are willing to stop the targeted killing and exodus of Punjabis from the other provinces. On the other hand, forced and illegal settlements and migration of aliens to Punjab have now become a major concern and a worry for the people of Punjab. Therefore, PLM therefore demands all the illegal and illegal forced settlement and migration of aliens must be stopped in Punjab immediately.
15).Time to Act: Time to change the.
Federal and Provincial governments must frame necessary laws to implement and enforce the following acts:
- 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.
- Public announcements at public places such as PTCL and mobile phone service providers customer services at airports, railway stations, bus stands, banks, and markets must strictly be made and delivered in Punjabi.
- Declare official holidays to celebrate the days of Punjabi heroes and Sufi saints. Allocate 10% of Punjab’s GDP for the development, promotion, and preservation of the Punjabi language and culture.
- Punjabi educational institutions should be provided with the required Punjabi language teaching staff and faculties at the earliest.
- Pakistan Television and Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation will launch their full- time Punjabi language FM stations and TV channels.
- Khyber Pukhtoon Khawah and Punjab should be merged. The ancient Punjabi cultural heritage and historical places of Punjab such as Harappa, Taxila, and Lahore Fort, and others spread all over Punjab must be protected and preserved carefully.
- Tourism in Punjab must be developed to a world-class level.
- The Punjabi film industry must be revived. Modern world-class studios and film academies must be established.
16). All the provinces must be granted complete provincial autonomy.
PLM hereby demands that all 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. Furthermore, as essential components of the constitution and democracy, civil and political rights must be protected, and the federation must ensure one’s right to participate in the civil and political life of society and state without discrimination or repression.
17).Sindhi, Punjabi, Pushto, and Balochi have been designated as 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 Sindi,Punjabi, Pushto, and Balochi as the majority languages of all the four federating units as the national languages. A national language and culture commission should be set up by the federal government to work to promote Sindhi, Punjabi, Pushto, and Balochi languages on the national level and inter-cultural harmony. The Federal Government should set up Federal Sindhi University, Federal Punjabi University, Federal Pashto University, and Federal Balochi University in Islamabad on the pattern of the Federal Urdu University.
(18) And English is included.
The Urduization of Punjab has not only deprived Punjabis generation after generation of their mother tongue but has also kept them from mastering the English language as well. As a global language, English is used in international communication; the media; the internet; media; science, technology, scientific research; multiple cultures; tourism; world literature; business;
trade; industry; aviation; computers; science; diplomacy; tourism; and world-renowned universities and educational institutions. Many countries include English in their school syllabus, and children start learning English at a younger age. All Punjabi children must be provided with all the facilities to learn and master the English language along with their mother tongue to compete with the rest of the world in all fields . Arabic, being the religious language of Punjabi Muslims, may be taught at higher levels as an optional language.
19). Minority religions and human rights must be protected.
All human beings are created equal; racial supremacy is unacceptable; women and children have rights; socio-economic inequality is despicable and should be fought against. Discrimination because of religion (creed) is against the law. In Punjab,
everyone, including minorities, should have access to the same opportunities and benefits, and be treated with equal dignity and respect, regardless of their religion. race, ethnicity, and color. The religious, economic, social ,cultural , civil and political rights of all the native Punjabi-speaking minorities living in Punjab must be protected.
20). Punjab Government to must announce the following public holidays
The East India Company After having annexed Punjab on March 29, 1849, began burning Punjabi books across Punjab and banned Punjabi medium of instruction in the educational institutions of Punjab . The Punjab government should declare a public holiday on March 29 to express solidarity with the mother tongue of Punjab on 29 day of march each year . The government should also announce the official celebration of “Punjabi Culture Day” in Punjab on the first day of Wisakh each year . In addition, during the partition of Punjab on August 17, 1947, more than one million innocent Punjabis were slaughtered . Therefore, the Punjab government must announce to officially observe the mourning day as "Punjab Martyrs Day" in memory of the Punjabis who were martyred during the civil war and communal riots during due to creation of Pakistan, and announce a public holiday accordingly Moreover ,a public holiday must be announced on September 21 in the province on the occasion of martyrdom day of freedom movement hero Rai Ahmed Kharal Sahaheed. As lion hearted Kharal died a martyr’s death on September 9, 1857, in the course of his battle to liberate Punjab and punjabi people from imperialist rule PLM strongly believes that the division of Punjab has serious consequences and is an existential threat to the very existence of the country. The serious linguistic, ethnic, cultural, and social issues facing Punjab need urgent resolution. Therefore, the Punjabi Language Movement presents its twenty points of demands/agenda titles as The Charter of The Punjabi Language to the government of Pakistan, Prime Minister of Pakistan, Government of Punjab ,Chief Minister of Punjab and Punjab Assembly for immediate acceptance and action. PLM demands from the federal government and the provincial government of Punjab and the Punjab assembly to legislate to adopt and enforce The Charter of Punjabi Language nineteen point demands as stated above without further delay.
Note: “The Charter of the Punjabi Language Movement was presented on 22 February , 2022, by Chaudhry Nazeer Kahut ,Founder-Chairman: Punjabi Language Movement to the Consul General of Pakistan, Mr. Abdul Hameed at the Consulate General of Pakistan in Toronto, for the purpose of conveying it to the Prime Minister, Imran Khan, the Government of Pakistan and the Chief Minister of Punjab, Mr. Usman Buzdar, Chief Minister of Punjab”.
Chaudhry Nazeer Kahut
Founder-Chairman: Punjabi Language Movement
Chief Organiser Punjab Bachao Tehreek
Currently residing in Mississauga,Ontario, Canada.
Email address : punjabilanguagemovement1947@gmail.com
Email address: nazeerkahut@gmail.com 22 Feb 2022 CC.
Imran Khan,The Prime Minister of Pakistan
Arif Alvi The President of Pakistan
Usman Buzdar, the Chief Minister of Punjab
Chaudhry Ghulam Serwar, Governor of Punjab
Chaudhry Pervez Elahi . Speaker Punjab Assembly
Pakistan’s Ambassador: Ottawa, Canada
Consul General of Pakistan, Toronto, Canada