Fact-check: False claims circulate about HEC dropping Urdu as mandatory subject at undergraduate level

Online users are circulating claims that under directions from the new education minister, Pakistan’s regulatory body for higher education no longer requires students to take Urdu as a mandatory subject in order to graduate from a university or a college.

These posts have sparked outrage on social media, where users have accused the new government of undermining the national language.

However, the claim is misleading and omits important context.

Claim

On September 28, a user on Facebook shared a nearly four-minute video in which the narrator claims that Federal Education Minister Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui has removed Urdu from the undergraduate curriculum.

The video was posted with the caption: "HEC’s [Higher Education Commission] new undergraduate policy drops Urdu from the curriculum." The post has been viewed over 5,500 times and shared more than 20 times to date.

Another post also accused the HEC of excluding Urdu from higher studies.

Similar claims were also shared here, here and here.

Fact

According to the HEC and the administration of three universities, Urdu has never been a mandatory subject for undergraduate students in Pakistan.

Chairman of HEC Dr Mukhtar Ahmed told Geo Fact Check over the phone that the online claims were “false.” He also shared a recent press release issued by the Commission. Dated September 26, the statement calls the claims “misleading.”

"It is clarified that Urdu has never been a compulsory subject at the undergraduate level," the press release stated. "However, the subject is taught up to the secondary higher education level, i.e., intermediate/equivalent, which remains intact."

The statement further noted that while Urdu is not compulsory, a specialised degree programme in the language is still offered, and its curriculum can be viewed on the HEC website here.

Punjab University public relations officer Dr Khuram Shahzad, corroborated this, saying: “Urdu was never compulsory. It was always an elective subject at the graduation level.”

Director of academics at Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad Dr Muhammad Ishtiaq Ali confirmed the same, stating that Urdu has never been compulsory during his six-year tenure unless a student is pursuing a degree in the language.

Director of academics at Government College University Faisalabad Dr Salma Sultana also echoed these statements.

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