Pakistan: A Case of Implicit Status Planning in a Multilingual Context

Abstract

Language Policy is the manifestation of National ideology of a country. Language policy dictates the Education policy, guides the scope of the National Curriculum and medium of instruction for education. Sadly, Pakistan does not have a Language policy. Education policy is guided by Article 251 of constitution of Pakistan which proclaims Urdu as the national language, thus this is the only document which deals with the status planning. Corpus and acquisition planning are dealt to a certain extent in the National curriculum.  The implicit partial monolingual language policy supports English as the most prestigious code. Urdu is the lingua franca and medium of education for the masses, leaving almost no place for regional languages. The Status and functions of Urdu and English are different on papers and on ground. This paper reviews the policy based actions and incidents in the history which unfolds implicit Status Planning of languages, in Pakistan its implications.

Key Words: Language planning & Policy, Status Planning, indigenous languages, multilingual context, monolingual policy and medium of instruction.