KARACHI, June 26: Karachi University, on Wednesday, after a gap of 17 years, relaunched its quarterly Urdu journal Jareeda, mainly meant for publication of Urdu terminologies related to different fields of life.
The KU Vice-Chancellor, Zafar Saied Saify, who launched the journal during a press briefing, said that the latest publication (journal) was a significant activity undertaken by the revived Bureau of Composition, Compilation and Translation of the university and an addition to the valuable assets of Urdu language.
“The revival of Jareeda marks the pleasant change in the business of the bureau and a continuity of efforts made by the university towards the promotion of Urdu in the country, as well as other parts of the world, including the Middle East countries,” he mentioned.
He said that the university, through the bureau, had been able to publish 92 books during the last one-and-a-half years which, on the one hand, were part of the educational and research projects while on the other, had got all the worthy educational and literary points-of-view.
Issue number 18 of Jareeda has been dedicated for terminologies related to mass communication, journalism and the electronic media. In the next issue, terminologies related to aesthetics and fine arts would be covered.
Referring to the pace of books’ publication, he informed that in order to mark 2002 as the year of Iqbal, the university had published an English translation of his collection Israr-i- Khudi, compiled by a Pakistani scientist based in London, Dr Saeed Akhtar Durrani.
“The book includes the corrections of text in the hand of poet Allama Iqbal, and has been taken as a very important addition to the books and literature on Iqbal,” he added, saying that the university was also compiling Gulshan-i-Raz-i-Jadeed — another valued literary contribution by Iqbal.
The VC said that the university was not serving on the literature, scientific, cultural and research fronts equally, and yet it could be termed as the biggest university of the country with respect to its faculty, students, research programmes and institutes. “We have established a direct liasion with industries and civic agencies in the city, different scientific bodies and providing solutions of problems that our city and the country are faced with”, he maintained.
He said that during the last one-and-a-half years, the university had been provided with grants and donations by national and international bodies worth Rs2 billion for establishing centres of excellence and undertaking research projects in the fields of agriculture, environment, molecular genetics, bio-technologies, communications and information technology.
The VC also commended the role of the Ministry of Science and Technology, and mentioned that provision of considerable research grants and research productivity allowance would go a long way in the promotion of science and technology, encouraging the people to stay in the country and serve the educational institutions as well.
He informed newsmen that the university’s faculty of education was also being expanded and the departments of education, physical education, special education and educational management would be established. Works pertaining to establishment of institute of languages, television and broadcasting centres were also in progress, he added.
He said that in order to avoid any gap of senior and qualified teachers, the university had also started retired professors as adjunct faculty or visiting professors in the Arts faculty of the university. Presently, 70 research projects were in progress in different faculties of the university, while 200 PhD personnel were available with the university, he added.
The VC also said that there was no unrest among the teachers, the administrative system was working well and cases were being taken up and disposed off purely on the basis of merit.
“We are also negotiating with the United Nations for the establishment of a TV and broadcasting house at under- construction Dr Feroze Ahmed Institute of Mass Communication,” Mr Saify added.
At least 10 scientists and researchers of KU have been awarded Research Productivity Allowances from Pakistan Council of Science and Technology (PCST) in recognition of their discoveries and publications and 50 to 60 scientists and faculty members of KU have been considered for the allowance, he informed.
The director of BCCT, Dr Moinuddin Aqil; registrar, Syed Aqil Burney; deputy registrars, Syed Khalid and Qadeer Mohammad Ali were also present at the press briefing.