Language of Pakistan
Urdu is the only official language of Pakistan. Although English is generally used instead of Urdu in this regard. English is the lingua franca of the Pakistani elite and most of the government ministries.
Urdu is closely related to Hindi but is written in an extended Arabic alphabet rather than in Devanagari. Urdu also has more loans from Arabic and Persian than Hindi has.Many other languages are spoken in Pakistan, including Punjabi, Siraiki, Sindhi, Pashtu, Balochi, Hindko, Brahui, Burushaski, Balti, Khawar, Gujrati and other languages with smaller numbers of speakers.
Arabic and Persian are still taught as classical languages albeit to a small number of students. Although this number is dwindling.
See Demographics of Pakistan for a numerical breakdown of language groups.
Philologists say that there are over 300 dialects and languages spoken in the country today and each is distinctly differently from the other. Some of the common languages are:
Urdu: Urdu is the national language of Pakistan. It is a mixture of Persian, Arabic and various local languages. It is similar to Hindi but written in Arabic script.
Urdu: Official language
Punjabi: Mainly spoken in the province of Punjab
Sindhi: Mainly spoken in the province of Sind
Pashtu: Mainly spoken in North-West Frontier Province (NWFP)
Balochi: Mainly spoken in the province of Baluchistan
