Pakistan to Launch First Urdu Encyclopedia

The National Language Authority (NLA) — headquartered in Islamabad, Pakistan — is all set to compile the first Encyclopaedia in Urdu.

The Urdu Dictionary has a vocabulary of about 250,000 words, and compiled within 50 years whereas the English Dictionary was compiled in 70 years, Sarfaraz Tariq of NLA claimed during the reception hosted by the Iran Culture Centre to appreciate the services of the Urdu Dictionary Board for compilation and publication of a comprehensive Urdu dictionary.

He paid tributes to Moulvi Abdul Haq, Josh Malihabadi, Dr Syed Abdullah, Shan-ul-Haq Haqqi, Dr Farman Fatehpuri, Khawaja Hameeduddin Shahid, Prof Karrar Hussain, Dr Rauf Parekh and other scholars for their noble contribution for the compilation of the Urdu dictionary.

On this occasion, the speakers claimed that the 22 Volumes of the Urdu Dictionary have gained international recognition as a world class dictionary. It further brought Urdu among three top ranking developed languages of the globe.

The other two languages are English and German.