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The Punjab Institute of Language, Art and Culture (Pilac) has compiled a seven-volume dictionary of Punjabi language, considered to be the mother of all Punjabi dictionaries in the subcontinent, officials told Dawn on Monday.

Officials said the dictionary titled ‘Pilac Dictionary Punjabi to Punjabi’ took two years to complete and Rs24 million was spent on its compilation.

PILAC hired 10 researchers and two composers under supervisor Dr Shahid Kashmiri, a renowned Punjabi scholar and visiting faculty at the Government College University, Lahore. The price of the dictionary is Rs9,000 and it will be on sale after its launch ceremony.

Pilac Director General Dr Sughra Sadaf said Chief Minister Usman Budar would be chief guest on the launch ceremony.

She said the compilation of the dictionary was a huge task, and indeed a milestone for Pilac. She said that Pilac would invite writers, intellectuals, artists and prominent personalities from different walks of life at the launch.

Date for the launch will be announced in next few days.

The chief minister is also the chairman of the newly-constituted Board of Governors of Pilac.

The new board made a few days ago has five non-official members along with a long list of official members.

The non-official members are journalists and writers Sohail Warraich, Akhtar Mamunka and Younus Butt, actress Bahar and poet and painter Sarwat Mohiuddin.

Official members are Minister for Culture and Information Fayyaz Hasan Chohan, MPAs Mahinder Pall Singh and Talat Fatemeh Naqvi, the secretaries of information and culture, finance and education, Pilac director general, executive directors of the Punjab Council of Arts and the Lahore Arts Council, chairman of the Department of Punjabi Language and Literature, University of Punjab, and the head of the Department of Saraiki, Islamia University, Bahawalpur.

Originally published in Dawn, December 18th, 2018