ISlAMABAD, April 2: The Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) has asked the Establishment Division to nominate more officers for training in Urdu language to enable them to do their official work in Urdu.

According to the AIOU vice chancellor’s annual report, 2004- 2005, a project called “Daftari Urdu Project for Federal Government Officers” was launched in 1983 to provide training to the federal government officers of grade 17 and above to enable them to do their official works in Urdu. These officers had been nominated by the Establishment Division.

Since the launching of the project, the university has trained 4,306 officers of grade 17 and above. Still, there remains a great number of such officers, who have not accomplished this national duty, the report added.

“They (officers) should be asked by the Establishment Division to do so, as they are bound to complete the training at the National Institute of Public Administration and services academy,” the report added.

According to the report, last year, the project director had attended a meeting at the Establishment Division in which he submitted a roadmap scheme for the project.

It was proposed that since all the major official works in government departments were accomplished by the officials of grade 17, therefore, it would be appropriate to nominate such officers from all government departments for the programme.

In this regard, the provincial governments and the government of Azad Kashmir may be approached by the Establishment Division to nominate their officers/officials ranging from grade 16 up to 20. This will enhance the number of nominees to a great extent, said the report.