ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: President Mamnoon Hussain on Wednesday emphasized preservation of rare books, literature and research material used in preparation of Urdu Dictionary as a national asset, and said the government would fulfill the requirements of related institutions in their efforts.
While addressing at the launch of web edition of Urdu Language Dictionary at the Aiwan-e-Sadr in Islamabad, the president termed Urdu Dictionary the biggest treasure of Pakistan’s literary history, and said its digitalization had preserved a thousand-year-old culture and tradition of the land.
The president said the step was a way forward in promotion of Urdu and had made the language make its presence in the international comity with sheer finesse and sophistication.
President Mamnoon said languages were the source of identity for literature and culture and expressed satisfaction that digitalization of Urdu dictionary would help the new generation get a detailed know-how about the language.
The president lauded Advisor to Prime Minister on National History and Literary Heritage Irfan Siddiqui under whose patronage Editor-in-Chief of Urdu Dictionary Board Aqeel Abbas Jaffery accomplished the strenuous project of digitalization of 22 editions of the dictionary.
Mamnoon Hussain said those languages got immortalized whose historic background, vocabulary, forms and usage of words in different ages and lingual experiences were compiled in form of a proper and scientific glossary. He said the nations that documented their cultural history had nothing to fear from the foreign cultural invasion.
President Mamnoon said maintaining a dictionary was not only an academic activity but a technical matter as well. He said though the overall expression and style of dictionaries worldwide was more or less the same, however in Pakistan, it required further advancement.
Moreover, he said languages were subject to change by absorbing new words with time and called upon the Urdu Dictionary Board to prepare itself as a vibrant institution to address these challenges of future.
The president recalled presenting a set of Urdu dictionary to the Urdu department at Baku University during his visit to Azerbaijan, which was highly appreciated by the students who termed it a great source of knowledge for the coming generations.
