KARACHI, Sept 15: “I am quite worried. The Urdu Dictionary Board is being treated like an orphan,” says Mohammad Ehsan Khan, an external scholar for the Board whose association with it goes as far back as 1961 when Shanul Haq Haqqee, eminent lexicographer and scholar, engaged him to work for the Board seeing his particular interest in the Urdu language.

“I worked for the Board till all its 22 volumes were published in 2010. After its publication, the Board should have come up with revised editions of each of the volumes of the dictionary. They should have also put the dictionary on a CD-Rom and made it available online,” says Mr Khan, former research-in-charge in Water and Power Development Authority based in Lahore.

“Apparently the resident engineer from the Quaid-i-Azam Mazar Management Board is working as the chief editor of the Board,” says Younus Hasny, who had been chief editor of the Board from 2001 to 2003. “The dilemma is that the decision-makers in the government do not understand what a complex and mammoth task it is to create a dictionary. People who have no idea about a dictionary are at the helm of its affairs,” adds Mr Khan, currently a research supervisor for PhD Urdu students at the Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science and Technology in Karachi.

“While I was working for the Board I was often asked when I will finish working on the dictionary. What they never understood is that this kind of work never ever ceases,” says Mr Hasny, who worked on the 17th, 18th and 19th volumes of the dictionary.

Established in 1958 by the federal ministry of education it was then known as the Urdu Development Board (Urdu Taraqqi Board) and its name was changed in 1982 to Urdu Dictionary Board. Till 2007 the board fell under the federal ministry of education. But after the passing of the 18th amendment, it was handed over to the cabinet division, following which the National Language Authority was asked to look after its affairs, now being looked after by the Ministry of Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage.

The Board has been without a chief editor for the last two years. For the time being Muhammad Arif has been working as the acting chief editor since September 2012 though he is associated with the Quaid-i-Azam Mazar Management Board. “I’ll continue to hold this additional charge till a chief editor for the Board is found,” says Mr Arif.

When asked that why it was difficult to fill the vacancy, Mr Arif said: “Two of our editors just retired and the government has put a ban on recruitment.” To which Mr Hasny counters that retired chief editors and editors could be hired on a contract basis as was done in his case.

The Urdu Dictionary Board (Urdu Lughat Board) is situated behind the General Post Office, near the Nipa Flyover in Gulshan-i-Iqbal, and is housed in a modest building which except for its board that announces its presence one would pass it by without casting a glance. Climbing up the stairs of the premises, one enters the main editorial hall where the staff is working quietly away on their glass-topped formica tables, minutely scrutinising words. A stack of cards neatly lined in a narrow drawer is placed on the tables of the assistant editors. “We are revising the word list for the soon-to-be-published Concise Urdu Dictionary,” says a staff member.

“We are now working on a two-year project of taking out a two-volume concise Urdu Lughat,” says Mr Arif. Giving further details, Aqeel Siddiqui, an assistant editor, says that so far volume one has been completed and 400 pages of volume two have also been compiled. “However these have to go through a couple of revisions before we publish them,” says Mr Siddiqui. Both of them also say that the Board is planning to revive the now-defunct quarterly magazine of the Board, Urdunama. “The secretary for national heritage has given us the approval and we plan to start working on the magazine soon,” says Mr Arif.

Coming back to the issues besetting the Board, a former chief editor who helmed the board from 2003 to 2007, says: “If the Concise Urdu Dictionary is published in its current form, then it will be awful for the Urdu language and shameful for the country. No rules have been devised as to which word should be included or excluded. The words are being compiled that go against modern lexicography rules.” He adds: “I was invited to advise as to how to go on about it but I told the Board officials that it is not my job alone but other qualified scholars and lexicographers should have also been included.”

According to Mr Hasny initially he was sent a couple of copies of the Concise Urdu Dictionary about once or twice for proofing and revision but after that they were discontinued. “I have heard that the Board is working on the Concise Urdu Dictionary. But nobody has contacted me nor consulted me for suggestions or proofing the yet-to-be-published Concise Urdu Dictionary,” says Mr Khan,

The former chief editor further says that one also needs to ask them what they are doing to preserve the 1.4 million lexicon reference cards housed in the Urdu Dictionary Board which is an asset that needs to be shared with the world. “There is so much that can be derived from the 22-volume Urdu dictionary; such as Children’s Urdu dictionary, technical dictionary etc but whatever work that they are doing is quite slow,” says Mr Hasny.

“It is so painful what is happening right now with the Urdu Dictionary Board,” says Mr Khan. “I just hope the new government pays attention to the affairs of the Board.”