During my O-Levels summer break, I voluntarily taught at a remote trust school. The fourth-graders would huff and puff, hands trembling, stuttering answering even in Urdu - let alone English. My dad suggested I switch to Punjabi, their and my mother tongue. I did. The kids who couldn’t look me in the eye only 24 hours earlier spoke with impeccable confidence in their mother tongue.
I realized their voice vanished because they were forced to translate their very selves into a language that wasn’t their own - their "luGHa-biz-zaat" in Arabic. I aboundingly adore Urdu, but my own experience made me a firm believer in teaching regional languages in schools.
The language that should take precedence after English and over Urdu is the child's mother-tongue. Punjabi, Pashtu, Sindhi, Saraiki, Balochi, Hindko, Brahui etc., should all be taught from 1st grade till 10th/12th grade, it should be compulsory & not be able to be opted out of