KARACHI, Sept 3: The expansion project of Ghalib Library has been in a state of limbo for the past seven months because the city government has been dragging its heels.

Shahabuddin Qidwai of Ghalib Library told Dawn that Karachi Nazim Naimatullah Khan had paid a visit to the library on Feb 20. “He promised that the city government would build a library on the ground floor of the building which had been vacated by the Habib Bank earlier this year. This high- profile visit was followed by another visit of a city government official who inspected the building. However, the city government seems to have lost its interest in the project,” he said.

Run by Idara-i-Yadgar-i-Ghalib, Ghalib Library possesses more than 30,000 books as well as old literary magazines. It was founded by Faiz Ahmed Faiz and Mirza Zafarul Hasan during the centenary celebrations of Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib.

Mr Qidwai said that under an agreement Ghalib Library was supposed to receive the rent paid by the Habib Bank to the defunct Karachi Metropolitan Corporation. “This practice of paying grant-in-aid — which was actually the rent of the Habib Bank — was discontinued by the KMC in 1995. The KMC maintained that no funds could be made available to Ghalib Library because they were not giving grant-in-aid to any library. Our plea was that the KMC was not giving us any grant-in-aid. It was giving us the rent paid by the HBL.”

He recalled that previously all the utility bills and taxes of Ghalib Library had been paid by the Habib Bank. “Since we are not receiving any grant from the city government, we have not been able to pay our utility bills. For instance, Ghalib Library owes Rs1.5 million to the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation.”

He said the Islamabad-based Academy of Letters used to give Ghalib Library a paltry sum of Rs10,000 on an annual basis. “The Academy of Letters stopped giving Ghalib Library this fund about 10 years ago. The Infaq Foundation gives Ghalib Library about Rs100,000 every year for publication of books,” he said.

He told Dawn that Idara-i-Yadgar-i-Ghalib had published more than 40 books. “At least 25 books will soon by published by Idara-i-Yadgar-i-Ghalib, which will also focus on the annotative works about Ghalib’s poetry,” he said.

Naseem Ahmad, who has been associated with Ghalib Library since 1973, told Dawn that the library had back issues of very old literary magazines, such as Awadh punj, Al-Hilal, Nigar, Afkar, Nairang-i-Khyal, etc. “This library has almost all the written and published material on Ghalib. It has original scripts of TV and radio plays. It also has magazines and souvenirs brought out by universities and colleges,” he said.

In addition to books on Ghalib, the library also has books on Iqbal and Faiz Ahmad Faiz. It also has a large number of books donated by scholars.