2nd International Conference of the Linguistic Association of Pakistan Institute of Languages, University of the Punjab, October 18—20, 2016 (ICLAP 2016) Declaration ICLAP 2016 Dr. María Isabel Maldonado García Incharge Institute of Languages, University of the Punjab Convener of the conference Dr. Ghulam Raza President of the Linguistic Association of Pakistan Every linguist of the world would agree that children learn best if they are taught in their mother tongues. Nevertheless, it is extremely challenging to carry out this task when there is no such infrastructure to do so. Pakistan has seventy two languages and no resources for the teaching of all languages, for this reason it is impossible to teach every child in their mother tongue since some of the languages are not even documented. The literacy level of the Pakistani population is directly related to the issue of national languages proficiency. The opportunities for Pakistan in this regard are immense, as it has been proven that the more languages a child learns the greater the grey matter of the brain. In other words, a child becomes more intelligent when he or she learns an extra language. It is clear that Pakistan has a multi-ethnic and multilingual population as well as low levels of literacy. It is imperative to implement homogeneous education and language reforms that would produce individuals who would receive similar education and hence have access to similar opportunities. These reforms should lead to a lift in the literacy rate. In this declaration developments will be proposed and discussed which would lead to very much needed educational and language reforms, directed towards the implementation of homogeneous policies for ensuring that all citizens are bilingual (at a minimum) and able to use the national languages in whichever spheres they chose to. This will ensure that they have access and language mobility within the country as well as in the international arena and are able to access foreign educational institutions as well as be able to understand and compete with others in the fields of technology, exports, education, etc. In 2013 the Lahore Declaration was made on the occasion of the International Conference on Language Sciences and the Developing World. The language scholars there vowed to achieve a set of particular objectives. It is pleasing to observe that although the number of linguists is still limited, in 2016 awareness of the problems has increased and some of the goals seem to be achieving. This is due to an increasing number of language experts that Email: iclap2016@gmail.com, Website: www.iclap.org/ICLAP2016, Facebook: www.facebook.com/ICLAP2016 2nd International Conference of the Linguistic Association of Pakistan Institute of Languages, University of the Punjab, October 18—20, 2016 (ICLAP 2016) have specialized in linguistic science and are producing valuable research, as well as a larger group of interested students who perhaps will in turn produce a long lasting impact in the linguistic panorama of this country. This declaration includes four sections namely: a) Major objectives to work for, b) Steps to be taken, c) Demands from policy makers, d) Announcement of ICLAP 2017 A) Major objectives to work for We would work for pursuit of the following objectives: 1. To document and publish maximum body of scientific studies on Pakistani languages particularly those which are not yet properly documented 2. To expand the scope of research on linguistics beyond the study of English 3. To struggle for setting up linguistic studies departments not under the umbrella of the English language departments or any other language department or at least urging language departments dedicated to the languages of Pakistan to engage themselves not only in literary studies, but also in the scientific studies of their languages 4. To create international linkages with foreign universities to promote research in language and linguistics in Pakistan 5. To develop databases for research in Pakistani languages 6. To create an international network of researchers interested in the languages spoken in Pakistan 7. To develop collaborations with other researchers within Pakistan and abroad 8. To identify language problems with the purpose of developing research that would address those problems 9. To suggest policies for the teaching of the languages of Pakistan B) Steps to be taken for achieving objectives To achieve these objectives the following steps are immediately suggested: 1. Starting publication of Journal of Linguistic Association of Pakistan 2. Forming a committee of linguists to work on documentation of regional languages of Pakistan Email: iclap2016@gmail.com, Website: www.iclap.org/ICLAP2016, Facebook: www.facebook.com/ICLAP2016 2nd International Conference of the Linguistic Association of Pakistan Institute of Languages, University of the Punjab, October 18—20, 2016 (ICLAP 2016) 3. Forming a committee of linguists to seek opportunities for development of linkages with foreign universities and other research institutes to develop a research culture in Pakistan 4. Constituting a scientific committee within the Linguistic Association of Pakistan for the purpose of advising the government in language planning and policy decision making and engaging in matters of importance C) Demands from policy makers and government institutions To meet with our objectives we also announce to convince the decision makers to take the following practical steps: 1. Initiating primary school education in major Pakistani languages all over Pakistan 2. Sparing funding for establishment of institutes of language research and development of the linguistic resources of Pakistani languages 3. Every language department of a university in Pakistan should have at least one third faculty members qualified in linguistics 4. Language papers in the competitive examinations of federal and provincial governments should also constitute at least one third part from linguistics 5. Admissions in degree programs at the Department of Linguistics of QAU should be resumed 6. Institute of Languages at the University of the Punjab should be upgraded to the Institute of Languages and Linguistics 7. The Bill for declaring the major Pakistani languages as national languages should be taken seriously and a purposeful discussion should be made in the parliament D) Announcement of ICLAP 2017 The 3rd International Conference of the Linguistic Association of Pakistan (ICLAP 2017) will be held in Karachi and would be jointly hosted by the NED University of Engineering and Technology and the DHA Suffa University. The exact dates of the conference would be announced later. Email: iclap2016@gmail.com, Website: www.iclap.org/ICLAP2016, Facebook: www.facebook.com/ICLAP2016