Pakistan is a multilingual and multicultural country with over 70 living languages, out of which nearly 30 are spoken in the northern region. Forum for Language Initiatives (FLI) started its operations in 2002 to promote, preserve and document these lesser-known languages.  

Language of instruction at school and unclear education policy are major challenges for Pakistan. The mother tongue of children are not taught in early school years which is why FLI felt the need to advocate for Mother Tongue Based-Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) and started developing capacity among three language communities of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in curriculum and instructional materials development, school management and teacher training. Since 2008, these projects have been flourishing, receiving greater demand to establish more schools, especially for girls. Subsequently, three other language communities also started their training in 2011, launched their pilot pre-schools and will soon complete the first two-year cycle.

Throughout these years, FLI has continued its advocacy and mobilisation efforts in the communities and with the provincial government and non-governmental organisations. This was the reason that the provincial government introduced five regional languages in 2011 compulsory subjects in all educational institutions up to intermediate level under the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Regional Languages Authority Act, 2011. A regional language has to be taught in the area where it is spoken by the local residents. Another bill was tabled in the National Assembly to recognise all languages as national languages. One standing committee was formed by policymakers to further pursue this.

Through various awareness raising activities, such as celebration of International Mother Language Day (IMLD) and International Literacy Day (ILD) in the communities and big cities, more coverage is being given to these issues through digital, print media and television.