KARACHI, Dec 14: Plans are afoot to transform the University of Karachi’s Bureau of Compilation, Composition and Translation (BCC&T) Press, which turned 50 in 2007, into a fully-fledged institute that would impart education pertaining to the printing process as well as the maintenance of rare and damaged books, Dawn has learnt.

Professor Dr Mansoor Ahmad, the current director of the bureau, told this reporter that the university wanted to make the BCC&T not only the country’s first centre for printing education, but also an institute that would teach the rules of translation, compilation and composition, while students would also be taught techniques on how to maintain library books and scientifically preserve rare manuscripts.

Asked when he envisaged the institute to be launched, Dr Ahmad, who took over as head of the bureau 10 months ago, said 2010 was being considered for the potential launch. “The vice-chancellor is taking keen interest in this project. The course and the syllabus are in the process of being thrashed out, though right now the progress is not very fast. We aim to produce something at par with international standards.”

About the BCC&T’s current activities, the director said that the bureau acquired modern printing machines in 1989 and now, along with meeting the university’s publishing requirements, it is also operating the press on a commercial basis, taking on external projects from across Pakistan, as it is the only institution of its kind in the country’s public and private sector universities.

“We also translate into different languages, not just from Urdu to English and vice versa. We also translate to and from German and Persian,” said Dr Ahmad. The original mandate of the bureau, established in 1957, was to formulate relevant Urdu expressions for English terms, publish teachers’ lectures, books and translations.

He added that the bureau publishes textbooks, as well as a monthly magazine titled Jareeda. One of the BCC&T’s bigger machines is capable of printing 5,000 pages per hour. The bureau also publishes international journals on botany, Urdu, Arabic and chemistry, amongst other subjects.

When asked if the focus on publishing external literature on a commercial basis was taking the priority away from research publications, Dr Mansoor Ahmed claimed that this was not so and that academic work was getting due attention at the bureau. When asked to give an estimate of the BCC&T’s yearly publications, he said offhand he could not come up with a number, “but it goes into the crores (of rupees).”

He admitted that during the past few years the bureau had seen some lean days, however, he said efforts were on to make it as productive as possible. When it was pointed out that the Bureau of Compilation, Composition and Translation’s 50th anniversary passed off without being noticed last year, he said something would be planned to mark the event befittingly.

Publishing houses attached to universities are part of a venerable global academic tradition, for some of the world’s leading varsities such as Oxford, Cambridge, Princeton and Harvard all have notable presses. Closer to home, the Scientific Society of Aligarh, founded by Sir Syed Ahmed Khan in the mid 19th century, played an integral part in making modern scientific literature available to Muslims of the subcontinent.