A private language bill has recently been presented in the National Assembly meant to declare some languages of country as national languages. This is a good effort towards right direction but the bill still needs improvement. Nevertheless, Senator Khalid Soomro (JUI-F) has also introduced another bill in the Senate pleading four languages of provinces be declared as national languages along with Urdu. Language has remained a very serious issue in this country ever since its inception. In 1948 when Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah declared Urdu as sole national language of Pakistan in Dhaka University, a group of students protested and boycotted the meeting headed by the then students leader Shaikh Mujibur Rahman who later became Founder of the Bangladesh. The matter was taken out of its context and our enemies were quick to exploit the issue. It was on record ex-prime minister of India Morarji Desai once said: Pakistan was broken on the basis of language. During my last months visit to Bangladesh, I visited War Liberation Museum in Dhaka and noticed that in 1948, Bengali members suggested in the Constituent Assembly that Urdu, English and Bengali be declared as national languages of Pakistan but vested interests, strongly rejected the suggestion. Today, no one prefers speaking Urdu in public in Bangladesh whereas all sign boards etc are in Bengali including number plates of Rickshaws (here called CNG) except a few in English in Dhaka. Despite the fact that people do not speak Urdu generally in public, still they are good Muslims. On occasion of my visit to Dhaka, a religious Islamic annual congregation was being held in Bangladesh that was the largest gathering of Muslims outside Saudi Arabia. I suggest that the bill must be amended as first step towards strengthening federation. Languages of provinces like Punjabi, Balochi, Sindhi and Pashto may be given the importance that is their due, along with Urdu in order to avoid confusion on the subject. MOHAMMAD KHAN SIAL, Karachi, February 5.