New Delhi:
Pakistan's growing proximity with China has been substantiated by the fact that the South Asian nation has announced to make Mandarin one of its official languages, along with Urdu and English.
A motion in this regard was approved in the Pakistani Senate on Monday. The motion said that the step was necessary in view of the ties between Pakistan and China, ANI reported AbbTakk News as saying.
While Punjabi is the first language for 44 percent of Pakistanis, 15.42 per cent of the residents speak Pashto, 14.5% speak Sindhi and 4% speak Balochi.
"In a short span of 70 years, Pakistan has flirted with promoting four languages that were not the mother tongue of many people in the country - English, Urdu, Arabic, and now Chinese -- ignoring native languages,” Pakistan's Ambassador to US, Hussain Haqqani wrote on Twitter.
The South Asian country has overlooked its local languages to chose include Mandarin in the list, leaving a majority of its population bewildered. But most of the Pakistanis seem to support the decision.
According to Dawn News, Pakistanis are more interested in learning the Chinese language than ever as they see the tides changing and expect that knowing Mandarin would mean more job opportunities in Pakistan and China.
