Trouble for book lovers: Hasrat Mohani Library hit by funds shortage

Administrator wants library to be handed over to the provincial culture department.

HYDERABAD:

College students in Hyderabad might soon find themselves struggling for a spot to pore over books as a financial crisis has hit one of the two major libraries in the city.

The facility in question is the historic Hasrat Mohani Library, the biggest and oldest reference library in the city. Founded in 1905 as the Holm Stead Free Readers Hall, it is situated adjacent to the Pucca Qila and the historic Mukhi House. With its collection of over 40,000 books, the library attracts college students as well as those preparing for the competitive exams.

The building, which has Victorian features, comprises over half-a-dozen rooms and a huge reading hall. The building is spread out over more than 18,000 square feet and the rest of the compound’s 1.5 acres contains a lush green lawn, a parking space, a mosque and some monuments. In 1967, the building was renamed after a revolutionary freedom movement leader, renowned poet and member of Indian Constituent Assembly - Syed Fazlul Hassan Hasrat Mohani.

The downward spiral

For a large part of its existence, the library has been occupied by several government departments. After Partition, the regional head office of Radio Pakistan was set up in the library and operated there till 1967. Over the next four decades, it housed several government departments while the library was restricted to only one room.

The library’s plight eventually drew the attention of the former district government, which spent around Rs26 million to spruce it up in 2008-9. The former district Nazim Kanwer Naveed Jamil also sanctioned an annual budget of Rs2.5 million for the library.

But this financial stability did not last long. According to the library’s administrative officer, Muhammad Aamir, it received two timely budgets. “After the end of the local government system, we gradually began plunging in the same state,” he said. The library’s budget for 2011-12 was released in April 2012 - 10 months late. The budget for the fiscal year 2012-13 has yet to be released, he added.

At present, paying utility bills and employees are not the only worries hanging over the minds of the library’s administration officials - the purchase of new books has also been on hold for quite a while now. The staff has shrunk from 31 people to just 18. Of them, 14 have been hired on contract while four from the City taluka municipal administration have been appointed under steady jobs. The administrator, Syed Yousufuddin Ahmed, said, “We don’t even have a librarian or an assistant librarian. The two library sciences graduates who worked for us for Rs10,000 got more lucrative offers and left.”

He wants the library to be handed over to the provincial culture department. “We have written to the culture department…we hope the taluka municipal administration will issue the no-objection certificate for the transfer,” said Ahmed. “We also badly need new books. So far we had been dependent on donations.”

The culture department’s libraries director, Bashir Abro, said that he recently began the process of acquiring the library. “It’s not just a library but an idyllic heritage place. We can’t leave it unattended.” He said he had met on June 5 Hyderabad’s deputy commissioner, Muhammad Nawaz Soho, to discuss the procedure. The library’s staff will be asked in a few days to submit details about employees, books, assets and expenditures so that the acquisition can take place.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 11^th, 2013.