The students of Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science and Technology (FUUAST) are facing immense hardships during examination due to acute shortage of books in Urdu language at the libraries of both the campuses. The students are forced to read old books whose authors are no more and no one takes interest and action to revise these books to inform the students about latest happenings.
The officials at Abdul Haq Campus told Business Recorder that the Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan had issued a grant of Rs 35 millions for the purpose of publication of books in Urdu language on September 2005 to translate the available books.
They said that it was a three-year project and the HEC had issued Rs 15 million rupees as the first instalment. The HEC was given a target to produce 80 books in the three-year project, which has still not been completed. They said that the HEC formed a committee and appointed Aslam Farukhi and Jamiluddin Aali as observers of the committee. It was given the task to print books of science to overcome the shortage of books in the university.
They said that in this time period, the committee could produce only 36 books in three years while 12 more books are in printing press. The committee members argued that the publication of books is a difficult task because of the lack of interest of writers, they said. They said that only a few institutions are working for the promotion of national language and they are working in the field of literature, not for the production of scientific books.
Anjuman Taraqi-e-Urdu is among one of them, which produces only 20pc textbooks that are not sufficient to cater to the need of the students, they said. They said that the HEC had directed the committee to produce some books on arts subjects including geography, economics, psychology and special education. However, the committee failed to produce these books due continuous negligence towards the arts faculty.
They said that the university can produce standard books if the education board works in collaboration with the Indian Abuul Kalam Azad, National Urdu University, Hyderabad, India. Jamia Millia Delhi also offered Department of Mass Communication, FUUAST, Abdul Haq Campus to share the available books, which are published in Urdu language, they said.
They said that the HEC should give the control of Science Board, Dictionary Board and Muqtadra-e-Urdu Board to FUUAST and it should also establish Urdu Publication Wings (UPW) in Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi to promote national language in the country.
Meanwhile, Zafar Moihuddin, Co-ordinator of the committee, said that the HEC was given the task to produce 80 books in a three-year project, which could not be completed because it is not an easy task to write books in Urdu on specialist subjects. He said that keeping in view the complexities in the books publication process, HEC has extended the duration of the project.
HEC has fixed the criteria without knowing the complexity of the process while the other valid reason is slow publication process. He said that the reason why the committee could not achieve the target is that the committee wrote letters to the senior professors of concerned subjects but only a few among them took part in this project while others refused by saying they could not translate books into Urdu because they got their education in english.
He said that the HEC had also directed the committee to submit the PC-I report to initiate translation and publication process in different arts subjects and the university had prepared the report but due to huge cut in the education budget, it could not initiate this project.
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