Compulsory Arabic can lead to more conflicts in Pakistan
The Imran Khan government’s decision to make Arabic compulsory subject in primary schools is yet another step in Pakistan’s march towards becoming a theological Sunni state, contrary to what its founding father, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, had envisioned.
Jinnah’s Pakistan was for all hues of Muslims and minorities who had the courage to adopt the land of their birth as their nation. But that is not the Pakistan what the mullahs and military wanted—they wanted a Sunni state where other sects and religion had no place. The process of making this happen began within years of Jinnah’s demise.
First the Ahmadis and then the Bengali speaking Muslims from east Pakistan became the `other`. The state actively discouraged and marginalised countless dialects in a bid to create a uniform linguistic i