Pakistan’s adoption of Persian as a national lingua franca would not represent the introduction of a foreign language, but rather the restoration of a civilization that shaped the region for nearly eight centuries. From the Ghaznavids through the Mughals, Persian served as the language of administration, diplomacy, law, literature, scholarship, and the courts across what is now Pakistan. Lahore, Multan, Thatta, Peshawar, and Kashmir all operated within the Persianate world. This tradition ended not through a gradual indigenous linguistic shift, but when the British replaced Persian with English and regional vernaculars in 1837 as part of their colonial administration.
Pakistan today remains deeply Persianate. Urdu contains thousands of Persian loanwords, Pakistan’s classical architecture and literature reflect Persian influence, and Muhammad Iqbal wrote many of his most important philosophical works in Persian because he regarded it as the intellectual language of the Muslim East.
Reviving Persian would reconnect Pakistan with its own historical identity while strengthening ties with Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan. It would also provide direct access to centuries of historical records, legal documents, poetry, philosophy, science, and Islamic scholarship that remain inaccessible to most Pakistanis.
From a religious perspective, Persian occupies a unique place in Islamic civilization. While Arabic remains the language of the Qur’an and the foundation of Islamic worship, Persian became the principal language through which Islamic philosophy, mysticism, ethics, theology, and literature spread across Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent. Many of Islam’s greatest scholars and mystics, including Rumi, Saadi, Hafez, Jami, and Al-Ghazali either wrote in Persian or profoundly influenced the Persian intellectual tradition. For centuries, Persian was taught alongside Arabic in the madrasas of Lahore, Multan, and other centers of learning throughout present-day Pakistan.
Adopting Persian would also represent an opportunity to redefine Pakistan’s geopolitical and civilizational orientation. Since independence, much of Pakistan’s official identity has continued to operate within administrative, linguistic, and educational frameworks inherited from British India. One could argue that these colonial structures reinforced a South Asian identity centered on the institutions created under British rule, rather than reflecting the historical political and cultural networks that connected the territories of present-day Pakistan to the Persianate world.
A revival of Persian could therefore serve as a deliberate effort to reduce Pakistan’s dependence on colonial-era linguistic frameworks and to reorient the country’s intellectual and diplomatic outlook toward the historical Persianate sphere. Supporters of this view might argue that Pakistan’s natural historical connections extend westward through Iran, Afghanistan, and Central Asia as much as they do eastward into the subcontinent.
This is not an argument for rejecting cooperation with South Asian neighbors. Geography ensures that Pakistan will always remain part of South Asia. Rather, it is an argument for reducing the predominance of a colonial-era identity that emphasized the institutions of British India and for reviving a civilizational tradition that long predated British rule. A stronger Persian linguistic foundation could reinforce Pakistan’s distinct historical trajectory while expanding its engagement with the Persian-speaking world and restoring a forgotten aspect of its own heritage.
Pragmatically, such a transition would likely be gradual. Rather than replacing Urdu or English overnight, Persian could first become a compulsory language in schools and universities, particularly in history, diplomacy, Islamic studies, and the humanities. Over time, Pakistan could cultivate a new generation capable of engaging directly with one of the world’s richest intellectual traditions while strengthening diplomatic, economic, and cultural links with the broader Persianate world.
