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.