KARACHI, Oct 30: The Sindh Archives Department has started construction work on a neighbouring three-storey building following the release of Rs10 million grant.

The director of the Sindh Archives Department, Kaleem Lashari, told Dawn on Saturday that apart from an underground car parking lot, the extension building of the department would house offices on the ground floor.

"The second floor would have a seminar room and the rest of the building would be used to keep the archives of the province. If the government had released all the funds, we could have completed the construction work this year," he said.

He told Dawn that the Sindh Archives Department was also in talks with other provinces about the procurement of relevant records.

"The department has records up till 1935. In 1936, Sindh was separated from the Bombay Presidency and the province started to lose important documents to other provinces. Archives officials of other provinces have paid a visit to the Sindh Archives Department and efforts are under way to acquire Sindh's records," he disclosed.

According to an official report, around 55,000 files relating to Sindh were shifted to Lahore during One-Unit days and have been kept in the Punjab Archives. Out of these, over 150 files have been returned so far.

As far as the record of the 1936-1947 period is concerned, the report states that once the shelf listing of the commissioner's office is completed, efforts would be made to trace out the secretariat record of the period.

According to an official, the federal government during the army operation in Balochistan in the 1970s had acquired 500 files of the British era relating to strategy about crushing the Hur movement. However, these files were never returned.

The entire historic record of the British era was lying for years at the old commissioner's office in Karachi where a major chunk of the files was reportedly destroyed mainly due to lack of care. The collection of scattered record was initiated in 1977.