Language

Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan while English is the official language, used in the Constitution and widely used by corporate businesses, the educated urban elite, and most universities. Punjabi is spoken by over 60 million people, but has no official recognition in the country.

English (Official Language)

English is the official language, being widely used within the government, by the civil service and the officer ranks of the military. Pakistan's Constitution and laws are written in English. Many schools, and nearly all colleges and universities, use English as the medium of instruction.

Urdu (National Language)

Urdu is the national language of Pakistan, the lingua franca of the people. It is widely used, both formally and informally, for personal letters as well as public literature, in the literary sphere and in the popular media. It is a required subject of study in all primary and secondary schools. It is the first language of most Muhajirs.

As Pakistan's national language, Urdu has been promoted as a token of national unity. Although less than 8% of Pakistanis speak it as their first language, it is spoken as a second language by nearly all literate Pakistanis. It is written in a modified form of the Persian alphabet and its basically Indic vocabulary has been enriched by words from Arabic, Persian and English. Urdu has drawn inspiration from Persian literature and has now an enormous stock of words from that language. In recent years, the Urdu spoken in Pakistan has gradually incorporated words from many of the native languages found there including Pushto, Punjabi and Sindhi. As such the language is constantly developing and has acquired a particularly 'Pakistani' flavour to it distinguishing itself from that spoken in ancient times.

Sindhi (Provincial Language)

Sindhi is spoken as a first language by 14% of Pakistanis, mostly in Sindh. Sindhi has very rich literature and is used in schools. Sindhi language contains Arabic words and is affected by Arabic language to a great extent. Sindhi is spoken by about 20 million people in the southern Pakistani province of Sindh, Southern Pakistan, and by about 2.5 million more across the border in India. In Pakistan it is written in the Arabic script with several additional letters to accommodate special sounds. The largest Sindhi-speaking city is Hyderabad, Pakistan.

Punjabi (Provincial Language)

Punjabi is spoken as a first language by more than 44% of Pakistanis, mostly in Punjab as well as by a large number of people in Karachi. The exact numbers of Punjabi speakers in Pakistan is hard to discern, as there are many dialects/languages, such as Seraiki, which some regard as part of Punjabi and others regard as separate language. The standard Punjabi dialects is from Lahore, Sialkot, Gujranwala and Sheikupura districts of the Pakistani Punjab. Other dialects are Multani or Siraiki in West and South, Pothowari in North, Dogri in the mountain areas and Shahpuri in Sargodha area.

Punjabi Dialects

• Lahori - "The standard Punjabi language" and spoken in the heart of Punjab where most of the Punjabi population lives. The main districts are Lahore, Sheikhupura, Gujaranwala and Sialkot.
• Jhangvi or Jangli - Spoken in the central Pakistani Punjab, stretches from districts Khanewal to Jhang and includes Faisalabad and Chiniot.
• Shahpuri - Spoken in Sargodha, Khushab and Mandi Bahawaldin districts.
• Pothowari - The area where Pothowari is spoken extends in the north from Azad Kashmir (Mirpur) to as far south as Jhelum, Gujar Khan, Chakwal and Rawalpindi.
• Hindko - Spoken in districs of Peshawar, Attock, Nowshehra, Kohat, Mardan, Mansehra, Abbotabad, Haripur and Murree.

Pashto (Provincial Language)

Pashto is spoken as a first language by 15% of Pakistanis, mostly in the North-West Frontier Province and in Balochistan as well as by immigrants to the eastern provinces who are often not counted due to census irregularities. Pashto has rich written literary traditions as well as oral tradition. There are two major dialect patterns within which the various individual dialects may be classified; these are Pakhto, which is the northern (Peshawar) variety, and the softer Pashto spoken in southern areas.

Seraiki

Seraiki is related to Punjabi and is spoken as a first language by 11% of Pakistanis, mostly in the southern districts of Punjab, Pakistan. Dialects tend to blend into each other, with Punjabi to the east, and Sindhi to the south. Until recently Seraiki was considered to be a dialect of Punajbi. The Siraiki language has a 85% lexical similarity with Sindhi and 68% similarity with Odki and Sansi. Siraiki itself is Sindhi word and means northern.

Balochi (Provincial Language)

Balochi is spoken as a first language by over 5% of Pakistanis, mostly in Balochistan, Sindh and southern Punjab. Balochi language is very close to the Persian itself. It is believed that the language was brought to its present location in a series of migrations from northern Iran region of Caspian Sea. Rakshani is the major dialect group in terms of numbers. Sarhaddi, is a sub dialect of Rakshani, and other sub-dialects include Qalati, Chagai Kharani, and Panjguri. The Eastern Hill Balochi or Northern Balochi are distinct dialects.

Persian

Persian is considered to be cultural language of Pakistan. Although Persian has neither official status, it had for long been the lingua franca of the Pakistan and was the official and cultural language of the Mughal Empire. Persian was officially abolished from the region with the arrival of the British to the province of Sindh in 1843 and Punjab in 1849 to minimize the influence of Persia and Afghanistan on these western regions of the then British Raj. Urdu was introduced to tie the region in with the rest of the British Raj and help establish a common language amongst the vast territory the British ruled. Persian has influenced Urdu immensely, and is still appreciated as a literary and prestigious language among the educated elite, especially in fields of music (Qawwali) and art. In fact, Pakistan's national anthem - the Qaumi Tarana - is written in a highly Persianized form of Urdu. Persian is mainly spoken by the inhabitants of Chitral in Pakistan. Dari (a variant of Persian) is also the native tongue of many Afghan refugees (some 3-5 million) currently residing in Pakistan.

Arabic

Arabic is considered to be religious language of Pakistan. The Quran, Sunnah, Hadith and Muslim theology is taught in Arabic with Urdu translation. All Muslims can read and understand limited Arabic. The large numbers of Pakistani's living in the Gulf region and in other Middle Eastern Countries has further increased the number of people who can speak Arabic within Pakistan.