I'm a Punjabi Muslim from the diaspora and I'm disturbed and worried by the status of Punjabi in Pakistan. I'm touched by all those Sikhs that have expressed solidarity with us in this thread, and am just as disheartened by those who have repeated the same pro-partition extremist propaganda that just seeks to divide us and weaken us as a qaum. I don't want to speak the Hindustani/Khariboli language (the conflict between "Hindi" and "Urdu" just obfuscates the real language conflict between Hindustani and Punjabi), Punjabis speak Punjabi.
The fact that Punjabis dominate Pakistan has actually helped in the denationalization of Punjabis! The Pakistani establishment found it easier to use an already established lingua franca like Hindustani (that was imposed in Punjab by the British) than experiment with Punjabi. This made Punjabis the first (self-offered, I'll grant you that) sacrifice to the Pakistani state's policy of ethnic homogenization. Keep in mind that we've had more than one military dictatorship that has imposed an Islamist, Arabophile, Sikh/Hinduphobic vision of what it means to be Pakistani, it's kind of hard to go against that current.
The recuperation of Punjabi and Punjabiyat among Muslims is actually important for Sikhs because this is the only way for Punjabi to take its place as the major world language (with over a hundred million speakers) that it is. The first instinct of many Sikhs especially all the bad blood between us may be to cut themselves off completely and say that "it's Pakistan's issue", but if Punjabi was to die out in Pakistan wouldn't that mean that Eastern Punjab would be surrounded by Hindustani-speaking areas? Urdu is also the official language of Kashmir, as is Hindi in Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. The future of Punjabi in Eastern Punjab is then intimitely connected to its future in Western Punjab, and it shares its future with all the other languages subordinated to Hindustani (Sindhi, Kashmiri, Bhojpuri, Awadhi, Haryanvi, Kangri...).
Your history is our future, and your future is our future.
Maa boli, qaumi boli.
Panjabi bolo, panjabi parho, panjabi likho.
