KARACHI: The Sindh Archives and Endowment Fund Trust has signed a memorandum of understanding to catalogue, restore and conserve the old books and manuscripts available at the government archives department so that source material relating to the history of Sindh is available for researchers and scholars, said an EFT representative on Thursday.

Speaking to Dawn, EFT Secretary Hameed Akhund said that a two-member committee comprising Saleem-ul-Haq Memon from the EFT side and an official of the SA would be constituted to sift and select the material, including what had been provided by Dr Nabi Bux Baloch, available at the SA so that it could be preserved, digitalised and made available on a website.

A token money of Rs2 million would be given to the SA in this regard, he added.

He said that some of the documents to be preserved and reprinted included rare and pre-partitioned-era reports by commissioners and deputy commissioners which would help understand the situation at that time and how the British rulers viewed and handled these situations.

Meanwhile, a deputy director of the Sindh Archives said that as per agreement with the EFT more than 600 rare books would be republished and almost all of the 962 rare manuscripts including Mirza Kalich Baig’s letters would be preserved.

Published in Dawn, June 6th, 2014