1. ' SYED ZAWWAR HUSSAIN JAFFERY, J.--- Through this petition, the petitioner has prayed the following reliefs:-- "(A) This Honourable Court may be pleased to direct the respondents to perform functions of Federation and Province of Sindh to replace English by Urdu as National language for official and other purposes and established institutions to promote and preserve Sindhi language in the Province of Sindh to ensure compliance of Articles 251 and 28 and action against respondents under Article of the Constitution.
(B) Any other relief/directions in the circumstances fit for the purpose may be made in the interest of justice.
(C) Costs of litigation made, may be borne by the respondents."
2. The grievance of the petitioner is that as per Article 251(1) of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, 1973, Urdu language is National language of Pakistan for its use for official and other purposes and it is mandatory that arrangements shall be made for its being used for official and other purposes within fifteen years from the commencing day of the Constitution. The National Urdu language is known to every citizen of Pakistan and Provincial language Sindhi is known only in Province of Sindh.
3. ' Notices of this petition were issued to the official respondents. By a statement, dated 31-1-2004, learned Deputy Attorney-General for Pakistan filed parawise comments on behalf of the Establishment Division. In para. 3 of the said comments, it is stated that in terms of rules of business the administrative control of the National Language Authority (NLA) rests with the Cabinet Division, therefore, the Cabinet Division is the concerned Division to take step for enforcement of Urdu as an official language within the meaning of Article 251 of the Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan, 1973. The Establishment Division has no concerned for enforcement of Urdu as official language.
4. Then on 21-4-2004 Mr. Nadeem Azhar Siddiqui, learned Deputy Attorney-General for Pakistan, submitted comments of the National Language Authority, wherein following achievements/works were highlighted:--
(1) Most high priority was given to this task immediately after the establishment of this organization and sub-committees, comprising distinct experts and eminent scholars in the relevant disciplines, were constituted to formulate these recommendations which were finally examined and approved by the Authority (NLA) and submitted to the Federal Government in March, 1981
(2) Published almost 600 books and pamphlets etc. These include dictionaries and glossaries, which is the main function of the NLA.
(3) Reviewed and revised official glossary of "Majlis-e-Zaban-eDaftri" comprising 35000 terms. This is big step towards adoption of Urdu in offices.
(4) Published 21 books for the in-service training of personnel working in Government/Semi Government offices, Courts and other Institutions.
(5) Prepared and published "Urdu Thesaurus", another unique and prestigious publication of NLA, comprising 1000 subjects/groups of words.
(6) Translated approximately 52000 pages of official documents. These include translation of almost all Government Rules/ Regulations.
(7) Collaborated in training activities with various academic, research and educational institutions.
5. These include Allama Iqbal Open University, Ministry of Women Division, Education Foundation etc.
(8) Trained over 3127 Government personnel in official Urdu, Urdu typing and shorthand through the training centers established with the collaboration of Cabinet Division in Islamabad.
(9) Established Regional offices at Provincial Headquarters i.e, Karachi, Quetta, Peshawar and Lahore in 1985 and over 2000 Urdu typists and stenographers were trained at the NLA's Regional Offices.
(10) Developed official Urdu correspondence course to be taught by the Allama Iqbal Open University and more than 4500 Government Officers were trained in the said course in collaboration with Allama Iqbal Open University.
(11) Launched a translation project of 100 great books in 1996. Out of 50 books earmarked for publication under this projects, 25 books have so far been published and the remaining 25 books are in progress under phased programme.
(12) Conducted and published 8 research studies on following topics:--
(a) The language question.
(b) Scientific symbols, Notations and Numerals.
(c) Stenographers, Typists and Typewriters in Federal Government Offices.
(d) The National Language and reading habits among Women.
(e) Peoples Representatives and the National Language.
(f) Private Educational English Medium Institutions in Islamabad and Rawalpindi.
(13) Pioneered work on the development of a Code Plate for Urdu Computers in 1998. In June, 1998, with the combined and coordinate efforts of a group of volunteer computer scientists, Urdu linguistics and scholars, Urdu software developers and vendors.
(14) To avail benefits from the membership of Unicode Consortium and development of Urdu in Computer applications in future, NLA has established an Urdu Informatics Division in the Authority which is presently pursuing various development project in Urdu I.T. Urdu Informatics Division is presently engaged in translation of Computer Terminologies in collaboration with Microsoft Inc., to be ultimately used in Urdu applications in computers. Another Development project is under process of finalization with the Microsoft Inc. To be ultimately used in Urdu applications in computers.
(15) Another Development project is under process of finalization with Microsoft Inc. It will, of course, give a major breakthrough to the national language (Urdu) for its computer applications in future and will bring Urdu at par with the developed languages of the world.
6. ' Comments were also filed by Cabinet Division, wherein it was submitted that necessary arrangements shall be taken for the use of Urdu language for official purposes as and when circumstances allow.
7. ' We have heard the arguments of the petitioner and learned counsel for respondent and examined the material placed on record.
8. From the contents of the comments filed in Court by the Cabinet Division and National Language Authority, the two main authorities for introduction and implementation of Urdu as the working language at all levels replacing English language, we are of the view that they are working in the right direction and proper efforts and steps are being taken by them for doing the needful, i.e, implementation of Urdu as the national language of Pakistan and nothing is required to be done by this Court in this behalf. Accordingly, the petition stands dismissed along with listed application.