ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Planning, Development, and Special Initiatives is working to make Urdu the official language in all government ministries under Article 251 of the Constitution.
Accordingly, it recently authorised a revised PC-I of the project worth Rs78.186 million titled “Establishment of National Language Processing Laboratory (NLP-Lab)” to speed up compliance with the Supreme Court’s 2015 order to make Urdu an official language.
Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal has led these attempts to digitise processes. He said the government was promoting Urdu in every way.
The Ministry of National Heritage and Culture Division sponsors and the National Language Promotion Department (NLPD) executes the project.
“The core objective of the project is to elevate Urdu to the status of languages with extensive digital data resources and equip it with modern technology applications,” said Director General NLPD Dr. Rashid Hameed, whose department was founded in October 1979 to promote the Urdu national language.
Moreover, Dr. Hameed described the NLP-Lab, which develops applications like machine translation (MT), speech recognition (SR), and optical character recognition (OCR) to make language learning easier, facilitate cross-border communication and commerce, enable online content access, promote cross-cultural understanding, and preserve language resources.
He believed that only languages that adopted modern technologies would survive.
DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
The current government has taken many initiatives towards digital transformation since taking office in April 2022.
The minister created a steering council of IT and business sector specialists last month to accelerate digital transformation and boost exports.
Syeda Roshana Ali Naqvi, NLPD Programme Manager for Research & Development, revealed that the MT module employed computer algorithms to automatically translate English to Urdu.
“This module will efficiently translate all current official documents from English to Urdu, including policies, press releases, economic surveys, annual reports, long-term plans, newsletters, public notices, tenders, and advertisements,” she said.
Moreover, She stressed the lab’s role in preserving, promoting, and developing the national language.
The NLPD programme manager also discussed the speech recognition and optical character recognition modules.
She said the SR module will let digital gadgets recognise and transcribe Urdu speech. She added that voice recognition technology might improve accessibility and inclusivity for hearing and speech impaired people.
However, the OCR module converts printed text into editable digital text. “This will digitise printed records and save a lot of time and effort compared to manual typing.”
She claimed the OCR module will make text searchable and easier to utilise.
Experts believe this technology could make Urdu audiobooks accessible to visually challenged individuals. These and other AI-based apps can make Urdu easier to use across platforms.
Advocate Kokab Iqbal, who filed a groundbreaking lawsuit before the apex court in 2003, called the ruling a historic event.
In 2015, a three-member highest court bench led by Chief Justice Jawad S. Khawaja directed the government to follow the judgement.
“Urdu language promotion in government offices is urgent,” he said.
