PESHAWAR, May 10: Archival material in various government departments in the NWFP and political agents’ offices in tribal areas is perishing because of lack of preservation facilities.
Sources said the authorities concerned denied archivists access to historical documents from unsafe locations, and most of the record lying in dark corners for years had either been eaten up by worns or decayed becauce of dampness.
They said more than 120,000 files of the colonial era and the post-partition period had piled up at the Directorate of Archives, Peshawar, but these rare documents could not
be preserved because of lack
of trained manpower and technical resources at the directorate.
Officials said important files dumped at the offices of political agents in the seven tribal agencies and deputy commissioner offices had been damaged because authorities were not allowing archivists to sift through it and save it.
“Political agents refuse to allow archivists to collect files and declassified documents from their offices,” said an official, adding that under the National Archives Act, 1993, officials were bound to transfer important documents to the provincial directorate.
Established in 1946, the Directorate of Archives houses files of the commissioner and deputy commissioner of Peshawar, various provincial departments and the home and tribal affairs department. These files document events that have been taking place in the region since 1840, but many important documents relating to defence, land revenue and personal profiles are missing.
The directorate, which is supposed to preserve and maintain records of the province and the tribal region, has only five employees, including menders and binders and headed by a preservation assistant, who lack technical know-how to preserve the archival material.
“This is impossible for five people to treat and preserve thousands of files and documents at the directorate,” said an official of the directorate, adding that more than 100,000 files had piled up at the directorate to be laminated, categorised and preserved. With the present staff, the files might be completed in next 50 years, he said.
Sources said the government had yet to formulate a service structure for the staff of the directorate. They also had not been sent to the National Archives, Islamabad, for training. The directorate had asked the government to fill the post of archives officer, but to no avail, they said.
Archivists maintain that government officials lack knowledge about the importance of archives in the history of nations. Some officials, they allege, intentionally destroy documents to conceal corrupt practices.
“A major threat for archives is the attitude of officials who intentionally destroy records. The region has lost huge archival material,” said an archivist. There was no concept and legal obligation to transfer archival material to the directorate regularly, he observed.
He said small number of trained archivists and lack of proper training and facilities were also threatening the archival material in the province and the tribal area. The directorate now plans to computerise important record.
Officials said the revenue record dumped in Muhafiz Khana, Peshawar, was exposed to rains and dampness and much of the land record of the province had already perished. Similarly, important record at the office of the now-defunct commissioner of Kohat has also vanished.
“Eighty per cent record at the commissioner office, Kohat, has been damaged and the directorate has shifted only 20 per cent documents to the Directorate of Archives,” he said. He said political agents had refused to provide genealogical records of the tribal population to the directorate for preservation.
Officials said record relating to the tribal region stored in an old building – Tribal Resource Centre – in Peshawar was also in a bad shape. They said under the Archives Act, the directorate was mandated to maintain and preserve record at the TRC, but the provincial home department did not allow them to save the documents.
Sources said the Civil Secretariat, Fata, had also approached the home department for handing over relevant record to the archive section of the secretariat, but it had refused to do so.
