KARACHI, Jan 11 Ghalib Library, probably the best institution of its kind in the whole country, is struggling for survival as neither the Karachi city government, nor the Sindh government is ready to help it stand on its feet.

Although its private patrons are determined that they “will not let it close down as long as we live,” they admit that the sources of its funding, and consequently its activities, are shrinking.

Stockpiled with books - some going as far back as the 17th century - Ghalib Library is occasionally visited by scholars from India as well as from Punjab and other parts of the country. With racks after racks loaded with poetry collections and fiction books, biographies, dictionaries, commentaries on the holy Quran and literary works, special sections on Ghalib, Iqbal and other literati, the two-floor library has as many as 38,000 volumes and more than 50,000 journals.

The figure may sound unimpressive as a few libraries across the country are ahead of it in the numbers game. But on Urdu literature, it is stated to be unrivalled with the books maintained in good shape.

When this writer visited it recently on a cold and windy evening, its main hall wore a deserted look. Not a single soul was there to seek a drop or two from the healthful spring of books. It was explained to me that as it was just after Ashura and winter vacations also continued, booklovers did not turn up even in their usual numbers. There were, however, two women research scholars busy in the room meant for female readers.

The low attendance had another reason too. The library doesn't open in the morning and its timings are just from 4.30pm to 7.30pm, which do not suit students and teachers of the several colleges in the vicinity.

One of the two researchers, Naheed Akhtar, is a teacher at a government degree college. She said she came there to prepare her lectures, unusual in an age when most lecturers benefit from ready-made material. “I love literature and enjoy my profession. When I have to teach fiction, for instance, I have to learn about each and every aspect of its development so that I could explain it to my students in a better way.”

She was highly appreciative of the facilities at the library which, according to her, had no match in other libraries she had been visiting while preparing for her Master's in Urdu.

The other researcher was a student, who identified herself as Shumaila, just out of Karachi University's mass communica

tions department and doing research on Pakistan's periodicals. “I have visited other important libraries of the city also. First, they do not have as much material as this library does. Secondly, books and periodicals are kept here in a highly neat condition,” she said. “In the other libraries I earlier visited, books and magazines were badly spoiled by termites and silverfish. One could handle them at the risk of contracting various diseases.”

Nazia Mukhtar, who has been here as the librarian for the last five years, said the specialised fumigation needed for such a place required funds. She said she had plans to upgrade the library, but the shortage of funds was an impediment.

Impediments to growth

Raana Farooqui, the honorary general secretary of the library, said most booklovers would like to attend the library in the morning. “We want to open it in the morning, too. But for it we need more staff while we barely manage to pay the salaries of the present six-member staff, mostly part-timers,” said Ms Farooqui. She was reluctant to say that the library was plagued by a financial crisis, as most institutions across the country are, and instead preferred to say “We are hand to mouth.”

She highly praised the former city nazim, Niamatullah Khan, saying he took keen interest in the library's development. “When the branch of a bank vacated the ground floor's main hall, which was a source of regular income for the library though it came via the city government, we asked the former nazim to have its interior rebuilt to suit the library and he obliged. He also helped build the separate section for women.”

Apparently, she did not have anything positive to say about the city's current young nazim, Syed Mustafa Kamal.

The current sources of its funding include assistance from the Infaq Foundation. “Previously, they paid us cash but now they ask us to submit to them a requisition and they would help us accordingly,” Ms Farooqui said. “The late Mr S.U. Khan of the foundation was very generous to the library's needs. Since his death we have yet to receive anything from the foundation.

“The other major source of our income is an annual grant by the Pakistan Academy of Letters. They pay us Rs50,000 against the publication of our two annual books. The amount we receive is far less than we spend on the publications. But still it is encouraging enough.”

Consigned to history

The library, established under the Idara Yadgar-i-Ghalib, previously published a quarterly magazine called Ghalib, which ceased publication a long time ago, thanks to the shortage of funds. The literary gatherings earlier held in the library have been consigned to history. “Although they were stopped because of the law and order situation in the city, now we cannot think of reviving them. Even a cup of tea costs Rs15,” Ms Farooqui said.

A wall of the library halls is decorated with the portraits of its founders Mirza Zafarul Hasan, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Begum Majeed Malik and Sibte Hasan.

The books are donated by scholars and their offspring. There are whole sections with chits showing who donated them. “Several scholars have donated their whole personal collections to the library,” said Naseem Ahmed, the senior-most staffer of the library.

With Raana Farooqui being its general secretary, Fatima Suraiyya Bajia president and Dr Farman Fatehpuri its vice-president, the members of its board are Dr Jamil Jalibi, Syed Aijaz Husain, Hasan Mustafa, Dr Moinuddin Aqeel, Ahmed Husain Siddiqui, Dr Rauf Parekh and Zulfiqar Mustafa.

It was Mirza Zafarul Hasan and Faiz Ahmed Faiz who launched the Idara Yadgar-i-Ghalib in 1968, the year the Urdu world celebrated Ghalib's centennial. Under the same body the two luminaries, with the help of some other lovers of Ghalib, planned and had the Ghalib Library built courtesy the Habib Bank and finally opened it on September 1, 1971.