Hyderabad: A 2-day World Urdu Editors Conference, sponsored by Hyderabad’s Urdu daily Siyasat was held in this city on 30 and 31 December 2011. Before the end of this conference, a meeting of its delegates was held at which ‘World Urdu Editors Forum’ as a permanent organisation was constituted. Editor of the Hyderabad daily Siyasat was unanimously elected President of World Urdu Editors Forum. It was decided in this Conference that the 2012 World Urdu Editors Conference will be held in Karachi hosted by Mahmood Shaam and the 2013 Conference will be held in Canada hosted by Dr. Taqi Aabdi. Head offices of World Urdu Editors Forum will be in Hyderabad.

Allama Ejaz Farrukh, Vice President of World Urdu Editors Forum (WUEF) said that members of the Indian Chapter of WUEF will be Sarfaraz Aarzoo, Ma’soom Muradabadi, Shahidul Islam, Ahmad Sayeed Malihabadi and Ahmad Ibrahim Alvi whereas in Pakistan Chapter there will be Tariq Mahmood Shaam, Suhail Waraich and Ayaz Baadshah. Allama Farrukh said that in this conference it was also decided that this permanent organisation of Urdu editors will pay special attention to technical and other terms, lay emphasis on addition of more words in the vocabulary and on translation so that shortage or absence of Urdu equivalents of many technical and other words could be removed. It was also decided that meetings of office bearers of this organisation will be held twice a year and that its website will also be started so that people could offer their suggestions and problems being faced by editors of Urdu newspapers and magazines could also be highlighted and their solutions found. The Forum will also try to help and maintain economic stability of Urdu newspapers and magazines. In view of all these and other problems mentioned during the two-day conference of World Urdu Editors it was agreed that this organisation (Forum) should be a permanent entity so that it may be helpful in coordinating and liaisoning different Urdu institutions all over the world. The speakers agreed that if the lovers and speakers of this language (Urdu) play a responsible role in the promotion and development of this language, it can never become extinct. Speakers also laid emphasis on using correct spellings of words and that Urdu newspapers, by improving their standard can play an important role in bringing the new generation closer to Urdu. They also urged the editors of all Urdu newspapers to put pressure on teachers, particularly Urdu teachers to provide standard education to their students.

At the end it may be stated that some participants agreed that they are seeing such a large gathering of editors of Urdu newspapers from different countries for the first time in 65 years i.e. after independence. For this, they appreciated the initiative taken by Siyasat’s editor Zahid Ali Khan and congratulated him.