This week 50 years ago: The issue of national language and Section 144.

THE issue of Urdu as the official language along with Sindhi of the province of Sindh had become more contentious than many would have expected. On June 15, 1972 this newspaper ran a report according to which, a suit filed in the court of Civil Judge (First Class), Karachi seeking to restrain the Sindh Assembly secretariat and the provincial government from introducing the language bill in the ensuing provincial assembly (PA) session, had been admitted for hearing on June 17.

The suit in support of the claim of Urdu was filed by a local advocate Ghulam Mujtaba Saleem and a political party called Jamaat-i-Momineen. The petitioners quoting part II of Article 267 of the Interim Constitution submitted that while a provincial legislature might, by law, prescribe measures for the use of a provincial language, it was incumbent on it (legislature) to include the national language (of either wings, that is, Urdu and Bengali) in the legal prescription of such measures. This meant, a provincial language could be used officially but not to the exclusion of the national language.

On June 17, the Sindh government declared it had no resolve to move the language bill in the forthcoming provincial assembly session which could be a negation of the Interim Constitution. The declaration was made in the counter-affidavit filed on behalf of the Provincial Assembly in the court of Mr Abdul Hameed Baluch, Judge First Class, when the bill came up for hearing.

On June 18, the working committee of the Sindh Muttahida Mahaz, which met in Karachi under the chairmanship of G M Syed, decided to rename the organisation as Jeeay Sindh Muttahida Mahaz and called upon the Pakistan government to reopen the question of the national language with a view to giving due place to Sindhi and other languages.

A resolution passed on the occasion...