ISLAMABAD: Advisor to Prime Minister on National History and Literary Heritage (NH&LH) Irfan Siddiqui announced on Thursday that the idea of publishing a comprehensive dictionary of Pakistani and Chinese language is under consideration.
Presiding over a meeting to review performance of NH&LH division, Siddiqui said, “This dictionary of Urdu-Chinese language will prove as a milestone to reduce communication hurdles between people of Pakistan and China, and will bring them closer.” He directed the relevant officials to expedite work on the project of “Dabistan Farsi” (Persian dictionary), being carried out under an agreement with Iran.
Siddiqui also directed the officials concerned to finalise all formalities regarding initiation of work for establishing Pakistan Academy of Letters (PAL) regional offices in Dadu, Federally Administered Tribal Areas, Gilgit Baltistan, Muzzafarabad, Quetta and Peshawar.
He revealed that construction work on PAL auditorium would be completed during the ongoing year which was pending since a long time. He said that work on the first ever Urdu phonics dictionary would be completed in June 2018 and a children dictionary would be published in December this year.
Siddiqui further said that the first ever Urdu digital dictionary had already been launched, and directed the officials concerned to regularly monitor the website to resolve any problem being faced by users.
The meeting was also attended by NH&LH federal secretary, and Joint Secretaries Captain (r) Abdul Majeed Niazi and Syed Junaid Akhlaq, besides other officials of the ministry.
