January 20, 2006	Friday	Zilhaj 19, 1426

KARACHI, Jan 19: Senior archivists on Thursday underlined the need for equipping the provincial archives department with modern facilities for preserving old government record as well as record of historical importance acquired from private persons.

They deplored that a huge amount of record was dumped in the Sindh archives building at Clifton for want of shelves. The place where the building was constructed back in the early nineties also did not suit the purpose being close to the sea with a high degree of humidity, they opined.

The experts were speaking at a seminar on ‘The Maintenance and Use of Archives in Pakistan’ organized by the Pakistan Press Foundation at its PPF-Vicky Zeitlin Media Library.

Muhammad Ramzan, Director, Pakistan National Archives, Islamabad, told the participants that the Sindh Archives Department also had dearth of staff as there were only seven to eight people employed there.

“I visited the Sindh Archives the other day and suggested the acquisition of certain equipment and more staff. Old government files and other records were also seen dumped there due to unavailability of shelves,” he said.

To a question, he denied that the national archives had in its custody any record that originally was the property of Sindh archives.

He was asked about the 500 files from the British era pertaining to the Hur Movement that were requisitioned by the federal government during a military operation in early seventies.

“That record might have been called by some other government agency,” he said, adding that the national archives dealt only with 300 federal government departments and organizations.

Mr Ramzan said that the National archives maintained a record on 1,530 titles that included government records besides newspapers from 1848 to date, the Sindh Gazette of 1885, letters, passports and other records of Quaid-i-Azam, Muslim League record since 1906, etc.

He said under the law, old record was declassified in Pakistan after 20 years however, certain record was kept secret even after 20 years that was decided by a committee constituted by the federal government.

Deploring that no institution in the country taught the archives subject, he said the Pakistan National Archives planned to set up an institute for the purpose but after creating a market for the students.

He said all government departments from the federal, provincial, district governments up to the union council level had the archival importance, however, it had not been given due importance in Pakistan.

Mr Ramzan said a campaign had been planned to computerize the provincial archives and link them with each other besides developing a website so that the old record could be available to researchers.

To a question, he said it was out of his purview to do anything for shifting to Sindh its old record from the one-unit period containing 55,000 files that lay the Punjab archives.

Dr Malahat Kaleem, chairperson, Library Science Department, University of Karachi, too deplored the pathetic condition of the Sindh archives.

Afzal Ahmed, Director, Baitul Hikmah Library, Hamdard University, Karachi, said that they had maintained 1,600 manuscripts, one being 1,000 years old, press clippings on 1,300 subjects, magazines of 1923, Quaid’s collection including his letters, financial record, medical reports, etc.—PPI