With more than 60 languages spoken, Pakistan represents a diverse yet cohesive linguistic and cultural environment. Many languages are inter-related and many are normally spoken across regional boundaries (e.g. Pashto, Punjabi, Siraiki, Sindhi, Urdu and Kashmiri.). Therefore, there is a need to develop a common platform to bring together the researchers working on these languages. There are a few organizations and regular conferences which are looking at language and applied linguistic aspects, e.g. NLA and SPELT. However, researchers involved in language processing of these languages also require a similar platform for exchange of ideas. This would have many benefits. As Pakistan is a developing country with limited financial resources, it is difficult to raise support for researchers to frequently travel to international conferences to present their research. Even if funds are available for some, others in Pakistan cannot benefit from these conferences. There is also a need for developing language resources which can be used for benefiting people in all these languages. Finally, there is a need to develop collaborative projects to accelerate language processing development and deployment in Pakistan for the benefit of the whole country.

Therefore, there is a need to create a local platform to address these issues for language processing. Creation of PSLP will enable Natural Language Processing (NLP) community in Pakistan to interact more frequently, accelerating the growth of this very important field nationally. This society will also develop strategic liaisons with other similar societies internationally.