The national language of Pakistan is Urdu. Urdu and English are both official languages under Article 251 of the 1973 Constitution, which keeps English in official use until Urdu replaces it.
Urdu holds that position without being the mother tongue of most Pakistanis. The 2023 census records Urdu at 9.25% of mother-tongue speakers, while Urdu works as the shared second language across all four provinces. This article covers what Article 251 says, when Urdu was declared, why Urdu was chosen, and how many Pakistanis speak Urdu.
What Is the National Language of Pakistan?
The national language of Pakistan is Urdu, an Indo-Aryan language written in the Nastaliq style of the Perso-Arabic script. Urdu holds that status under Article 251(1) of the 1973 Constitution.
Urdu carries an Indo-Aryan grammar under a large layer of Persian, Arabic, and Turkic vocabulary. Urdu is the principal medium of instruction in the public school system, the language of national broadcasting, and the language of the Pakistan Movement literature associated with Muhammad Iqbal.
Urdu functions as a lingua franca rather than as a majority mother tongue. Speakers of Pakistan’s regional languages use Urdu across provincial lines, in the armed forces, and in commerce.
What Are the Official Languages of Pakistan?
The official languages of Pakistan are Urdu and English. Article 251 of the 1973 Constitution names Urdu as the national language and permits English for official purposes until arrangements are made to replace English with Urdu.
Article 251 has three clauses. Clause (1) reads: “The National language of Pakistan is Urdu, and arrangements shall be made for its being used for official and other purposes within fifteen years from the commencing day.” Clause (2) reads: “Subject to clause (1), the English language may be used for official purposes until arrangements are made for its replacement by Urdu.” Clause (3) lets a Provincial Assembly legislate for the teaching, promotion, and use of a provincial language alongside the national language.
The commencing day was 14 August 1973, the date the Constitution came into force, so the fifteen-year period in clause (1) ran out on 14 August 1988. English still carries most federal correspondence, superior court judgments, and higher education.
The Supreme Court of Pakistan addressed that gap on 8 September 2015. A three-member bench headed by Chief Justice Jawwad S. Khawaja ordered the federal and provincial governments to enforce Article 251 and adopt Urdu for official use, with a first compliance report due within three months. The judgment recorded that “in the governance of the federation and the provinces there is hardly any necessity for the use of the colonial language which cannot be understood by the public at large.” Implementation has been partial, and English remains in federal and judicial use.
When Was Urdu Declared the National Language?
Urdu was declared the state language of Pakistan on 21 March 1948, when Muhammad Ali Jinnah announced the decision at Dhaka, and received constitutional status for the first time in the 1956 Constitution. The wording in force today is Article 251 of the 1973 Constitution.
Jinnah was Governor-General at the time and made the declaration on a visit to Dhaka. Jinnah reached Dhaka on 19 March 1948, and the declaration came two days later at a civic reception on the Ramna Race Course Ground, where Jinnah stated that “the State Language of Pakistan is going to be Urdu and no other language” and that “without one State Language, no nation can remain tied up solidly together and function.”
Jinnah restated the position on 24 March 1948 at the Dhaka University convocation in Curzon Hall, telling graduates that “there can be only one State language if the component parts of this State are to march forward in unison, and that language, in my opinion, can only be Urdu.” Pages that date the declaration to 19 March 1948 are quoting the arrival date rather than the speech date, and pages that place it on 25 February 1948 are quoting the Constituent Assembly debate in Karachi instead.
| Year | Instrument or event | What it did |
|---|---|---|
| 1948 | Constituent Assembly of Pakistan and the Dhaka declaration | The Assembly rejected the 23 February amendment to admit Bengali alongside Urdu and English in its proceedings, and Jinnah declared Urdu the state language at Dhaka on 21 March. Urdu’s status rested on government policy rather than on law. |
| 1956 | Constitution of Pakistan, Article 214(1) | Gave the status legal force for the first time, stating that the state language of Pakistan shall be Urdu and Bengali, with English retained for official use for a further twenty years. The Constitution was adopted on 29 February 1956 and came into force on 23 March 1956. |
| 1973 | Constitution of Pakistan, Article 251 | Names Urdu alone as the national language, requires arrangements for official use within fifteen years of 14 August 1973, permits English until Urdu replaces English, and lets a Provincial Assembly promote a provincial language alongside Urdu. |
| 2015 | Supreme Court of Pakistan order, 8 September | Directed the federal and provincial governments to enforce Article 251 and adopt Urdu for official use, with a compliance report due within three months. |
Urdu and the Bengali Language Controversy
Bengali was the mother tongue of the largest single group in Pakistan between 1947 and 1971, when East Bengal formed the eastern wing of the country. On 23 February 1948, Dhirendranath Datta moved an amendment in the Constituent Assembly in Karachi to admit Bengali alongside Urdu and English in Assembly proceedings. Liaquat Ali Khan, who opens the list of prime ministers of Pakistan, opposed the amendment on the ground that Pakistan was created by the demand of the Muslims of the subcontinent and that the lingua franca of that population was Urdu. The Assembly rejected the amendment. Protests continued in East Bengal into 1952, and police fired on a student demonstration in Dhaka on 21 February 1952, killing several demonstrators including Abul Barkat, Rafiq Uddin Ahmed, Abdul Jabbar, and Abdus Salam. The 1956 Constitution recognised Bengali alongside Urdu. UNESCO adopted 21 February as International Mother Language Day in 1999.
Why Was Urdu Chosen as the National Language?
Urdu was chosen because Urdu already worked as the shared second language of Muslim communities across northern India and was the mother tongue of no province of Pakistan, which made Urdu a regionally neutral choice. The four reasons that shaped the decision are set out below.
- Neutrality between provinces. Urdu belonged to no provincial majority in 1947, so adopting Urdu avoided raising one regional language group above the others.
- Association with the Pakistan Movement. The All-India Muslim League campaigned in Urdu, and the literature of the movement, including the work of Muhammad Iqbal, was written in Urdu and Persian.
- Existing reach as a link language. Urdu already served as a trade, court, and administrative language across northern India, so a large population outside the Urdu heartland could read and speak Urdu.
- Script and scholarly continuity. Urdu uses the Perso-Arabic script shared with Persian and Arabic, which tied the written culture of the new state to existing religious scholarship.
Jinnah set out the governing argument at Curzon Hall in March 1948: a state made of separate provinces needs one language for communication between those provinces, and each province decides its own provincial language. That reasoning settled federal policy, and the choice was contested from the start in the eastern wing.
What Percentage of Pakistanis Speak Urdu?
Urdu is the mother tongue of 9.25% of Pakistanis, or 22,249,307 people, according to the 2023 census conducted by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics. The Urdu share rose from 7.08% in the 2017 census, the largest increase recorded between the two counts.
Native Urdu speakers concentrate in Karachi, Hyderabad, Islamabad, and the larger cities of Punjab. Sindh records the highest provincial share, followed by Islamabad Capital Territory at 15.72% per the 2023 census.
The census counts mother tongue only, so 9.25% understates how many Pakistanis speak Urdu. Urdu is a compulsory school subject in every province and carries national television, radio, and most of the domestic press, which puts working Urdu comprehension well above the native-speaker count. A separate article lists every mother tongue the 2023 census recorded, with the share attached to each of the languages spoken in Pakistan.
FAQs About the National Language of Pakistan
What is the national language of Pakistan?
Urdu is the national language of Pakistan under Article 251 of the 1973 Constitution. Urdu is an Indo-Aryan language written in the Nastaliq style of the Perso-Arabic script.
What are the official languages of Pakistan?
Urdu and English are the official languages of Pakistan. Article 251 permits English for official purposes until arrangements are made to replace English with Urdu.
Who declared Urdu the national language and when?
Muhammad Ali Jinnah declared Urdu the state language at a civic reception on the Ramna Race Course Ground in Dhaka on 21 March 1948. The 1956 Constitution then gave Urdu legal status.
Why was Urdu chosen as the national language?
Urdu was chosen because Urdu was already the shared second language of Muslims across northern India and the mother tongue of no Pakistani province, which kept the choice regionally neutral.
How many Pakistanis speak Urdu as a mother tongue?
Urdu is the mother tongue of 9.25% of Pakistanis, or 22,249,307 people, per the 2023 census. Many more Pakistanis speak Urdu as a second language.
Last Thoughts on the National Language of Pakistan
Urdu is the national language of Pakistan and shares official status with English under Article 251 of the 1973 Constitution. That position was set by government decision in March 1948, written into law by the 1956 Constitution alongside Bengali, narrowed to Urdu alone in 1973, and reinforced by the Supreme Court order of 8 September 2015 that the federal and provincial governments have yet to implement fully. The 2023 census puts Urdu at 9.25% of mother-tongue speakers, so Urdu reaches most of the population through schooling and broadcasting rather than through birth. Language policy sits alongside the other structural facts about the country, including the geographical importance of Pakistan, in explaining how a state built from several large language communities holds together administratively.
