September 07, 2006	Thursday	Sha'aban 13, 1427

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PESHAWAR, Sept 6: Civil Secretariat, Fata has requested India Office Library, London to provide gazetteers of the seven tribal agencies, prominent personalities and tribes of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas for its reference and archives library, officials said.

The request sent to London, a few months ago, has asked for record from 1883 to 1947 which included gazetteers of the agencies, tribes, prominent elders of the area and official notes about major events occurred in the region during colonial era.

“The civil secretariat had requested director of the London library to provide gazetteers and important record about the tribal region”, said an official.

He said officials of the India Office Library replied that they were unable to provide such a huge record.

He said: “Director of the India Office Library told the secretariat that it is not possible for IOL to collect the entire record, spread over hundreds of shelves, and dispatch it to Pakistan. Instead, the secretariat can select matter from our website and place an order for it”.

Unfortunately, he said none of the public libraries in Pakistan had a complete record of Raj period and some state agencies which possessed the material were reluctant to share it with the library.

The Civil Secretariat, Fata had set up reference and archives library in Peshawar last year to preserve historical, political public and cultural record regarding Fata and its people. The government has allocated Rs13.24 million to strengthen and extend the library.

Officials said that the secretariat had also approached National Archives, National Document Centre, Tribal Research Centre, Peshawar, public libraries and political agents to provide historic documents and important record regarding Fata to the library.