KARACHI, Jan 31: Hundreds of stamp-lovers flocked to the Arts Council where a four-day exhibition of stamps displaying the collections of around 40 philatelists got under way on Friday afternoon.

The exhibition was organized by the Pakistan Post Office and the Philatelic Federation of Pakistan.

Speaking at the inaugural ceremony, the postmaster general, Mian Mohammad Ahmed, admitted that the Pakistan Post Office had failed to promote philately the way it should have.

While the PPO had taken care of educational and recreational aspects of stamps, it had not done much about the investment aspect of philately, he said, adding “the feedback that we get from philatelists indicates that the quality of stamps — such as the standard of the paper, gum, etc used — is not good. But there is little that we can do about it because we depend on the Security Printing Press.”

Mr Ahmed said: “We learn from the history of stamps of the last 160 years that the first Asian stamp was produced in Sindh, the first double colour stamp of Asia was produced in India and that Jammu and Kashmir produced its stamps before Japan and China.”

It had been the effort of the Stamp Society of Pakistan since 1964 to develop the hobby of philately in Pakistan, in general, and Sindh, in particular, he said.

He recalled that the last international standard exhibition had been held at Karachi in 1998 on the occasion of the 50 years of stamps in Pakistan.

The director-general of the Pakistan Post Office, Agha Masood Hassan, a retired major-general, said that philately exhibitions be held on a regular basis.

“A suggestion paper be distributed among visitors so that it could be ascertained what the exhibition had achieved and what should be done to make it more effective,” he said.

He declared that the Pakistan Post Office would institute an award for those philatelists who did well at exhibitions.

In his brief address, the chairman of The Philatelic Federation of Pakistan said the Universal Postal Union Day — which was observed in a large number of countries — be observed in Pakistan as well.

Talking to newsmen afterwards, the Pakistan Post Office director general, Agha Masood Hassan, said that the Karachi region would soon get 160 motorbikes for its officials.

Criticizing courier services for pilfering the revenue of the Pakistan Post Office by dealing in letter post, he said he had filed a case against the courier services.

“In India, Bangkok, Japan, etc the courier companies are not allowed to deal in letter mail. Besides, we have our offices even in those areas where there is not a lot of business. The reason is that we are a service-oriented company. The courier companies, on the other hand, are concerned only about business.”

Agha Masood said that postal consumers were being provided fast, reliable and economic service and GPOs have been provided with computers to cop with the modern-day requirements, adds PPI.

Ahga Masood said that Pakistan Post was the biggest bank having more that 4.5 million account-holders and above Rs. 70 billion in deposit.

He said that four postal computer schools at provincial headquarters and one at Islamabad have trained more than 5,000 postal officers.