HARIPUR: Bibliophile Syed Zahid Kazmi has claimed he possesses the largest collection of Urdu autobiographies in South Asia with 95 per cent of them published in the region since 1876.

He has also established a private school for poor children charging them a monthly fee of Rs1 each.

“With 30,000 books, I have started working to put up a modern library in my native city [Haripur],” Mr Kazmi told the Taxila Chaupal programme at the Gandhara Resource Centre, Pind Gakhra, Khanpur tehsil, here on Monday.

The Taxila Chaupal is a monthly get-together of intellectuals, development planners, health and agricultural experts, archaeologists, researchers, poets and writers.

The session was moderated by former adviser to the prime minister on health services Dr Zafar Mirza, who has translated the English book ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People’ into Urdu.

Kazmi has also set up school for the poor

Mr Kazmi, who was the guest speaker at the event, said it was his “childhood passion” to become a bibliophile and that he always requested noted writers, poets, autobiographers and journalists to gift him books.

“It’s really an uphill task to win the confidence of famous authors for donating their books,” he said, sharing the difficulties he faced for book collection in the last two and a half decades.

The bibliophile said studying someone’s life was the most fascinating thing for him.

He said his collection included poetry books, travelogues, fiction, biographies as well.

Mr Kazmi paid tribute to Dr Pervez Parwazi, Munnu Bhai, Zahoor Awan, Akhtar Hameed and some famous authors for supporting his love for book collection.

He said he operated the Sungi Publishing House, which had so far published 20 books, while the publication of 15 more was on the cards.

The bibliophile complained that the habit of reading was on the decline in the Pakistani population and that his publishing house was facilitating authors and those who did something unusual in their life.

He said his school Babul Ilm was launched in 2016 and had 200 students, who paid Rs1 monthly fee each and got free uniform, books and transport facility.

Mr Kazmi said despite keen desire and efforts, he couldn’t provide students with food due to financial constraints. He said his friends sponsored students.

Published in Dawn, September 12th, 2023