Institutionalization of National Language in Pakistan: Policymaking and Practices

Abstract

The objective of this research is to delve into the role of a singular national language in a linguistically heterogenous society and its socio-economic implications. The research employs mixed-method approach; drawing on the discursive as well as deductive methods to analyze the role of state policies, constitutional provisions, academic statutes and rapidly expanding contours of the global geo-politics on the status of national and official language. The research arrives at the conclusion that despite institutionalizing a language as the national language and conferring the official status upon it; the multi-tiered system of education stands out as a colonial legacy and poses a major stumbling block in the way of socio-economic progress. The colonial legacy continues in a self-sustained system of communication without being an overly colonial precept, camouflaged in terms, readily in common currency such as globalization and modernization.