punjabi was one of the casualities of the uproar one nation one state that resonated in the newly formed pakistan in 1948 urdu was declared the national language over the years pakistani elite have made sure that anything other than english and urdu are looked down uponyoung journalist sehyr mirza recalls the time when her family decided to teach punjabi to her cousins fouryearold son when it was time for school her nephew could speak only a smattering of urdu he was denied admission in most schools as the managements felt he could be a bad influence on other kids ironically it is said the 700plusyearold languages root can be traced to what is pakistan nowpunjabis who comprise almost 45 of the population have been waging a spirited battle to get their mother language recognized as the medium of instruction at school level at present it is taught as elective in intermediate graduate and postgraduate levelpunjabi parchar society for instance has approached the court to make punjabi a compulsory subject at primary level lahore high court on february 12 had asked the provincial government to take steps to draft a bill as soon as possibleseven months and nothing has been done claims punjabi parchar society president ahmad raza in fact he rues that the situation is getting worse recently sarghoda university merged punjabi department into urdu department the society along with other likeminded organizations have decided to file a contempt plea and organize a massive protest on october 12while amending the constitution in 1973 the pakistan federal government had given rights to the provincial governments to promote their own language and culture in the 18th amendment in april 2010 the rights of the provincial governments about promotion of language were strengthened the sindh baluchistan and khyber pakhtunkhwa provinces used the opportunity to promote their languages but the punjab province has not evinced interest in it so punjabi still remains nonofficial says razaihsan h nadiem director of lahorebased dyal singh research and cultural forum an institution formed to conduct research in the history culture political issues of punjab too is extremely unhappy over the treatment being meted out to punjabi in lehnda punjab urdu has taken over punjabi as our mother tongue is not considered a sophisticated language the british imposed urdu over us by bringing in officers who didnt know the language to govern us and that has persisted even many decades after we became independent today punjabi is being ignored in the province despite being the mother tongue of majority its population we are working against great odds to protect and promote the languagepunjab adabi board general secretary and noted writer parveen malik says the board had to file a petition in the high court in 2013 because the provincial government refused to assure them that punjabi will be accorded official statushowever adabi board president and professor of punjabi language at institute of arts and culture in lahore mushtaq soofi is not so pessimistic a lot is being done