For a population of over 14 million, the historic city has only two public libraries, which were established before the partition. The education department of the City District Government Rawalpindi (CDGR) is responsible for operating the Municipal Library and Cantonment Public Library, but due to lack of attention from the government the public libraries are at the verge of collapse. More than 50 per cent of the libraries are being run without librarians.
Responding to questions about the below-par facilities at public libraries and vacant posts of librarians, Commissioner Rawalpindi Zahid Saeed said the trend to go to libraries has changed as people prefer to use the internet services. Talking about libraries in the different colleges, he added that it was the responsibility of the principal of the colleges to manage facilities.
Out of 36 colleges in the garrison city, 32 are women colleges. Gordon College is prominent among the four boys’ colleges where a librarian along with an attendant is responsible to mange the record of more than 75,000 books including the oldest books dating back to 17th century. Principal of the college told The Express Tribune that to take any step for the maintenance or development for the college, approval of higher authorities was necessary.
Fayyaz Ahmad Bokhari, the librarian of the Gordon College, said that he was managing the library since 1999. He said presently it was facing acute shortage of basic facilities and proper sitting place for the students. “There is only one computer in the library that is being kept in a lock,” he said.
Municipal Library is the oldest public library of the city. Established in 1868, it is situated in the heart of the city at Liaquat Bagh. The library is functioning without a librarian since 1992. A clerk, sitting on the post of a librarian, told The Express Tribune that he was managing the affairs after the death of the librarian back in 1992.
“It has a collection of some 48,000 books including 2500 reference books, out of which approximately 20,000 books are in Urdu language. Half of the precious collection of books was destroyed during 2001 floods when water inundated the library,” he said.
The library has some 7600 members, paying Rs250 as fee per annum. The city government allocated Rs8.15 million budget for the library including pay and allowances of nine staff members. The amount assigned for purchase of new books, newspapers and magazines was a mere Rs0.5 million. The clerk librarian said Chaudhary Shahbaz, who is headmaster at Government MC School, Millat Colony, is currently performing additional duties of a librarian.
The second is the Cantonment Public Library which was established in 1891 by two philanthropist Sikh brothers, Sardar Sujhan Singh and Sardar Kirpal Singh. It has 50,000 books and 1,550 members. They devoted the property of 45 kannals to run the library that included Cantonment Board Rawalpindi, Chaklala Cantonment Board, Odeon Cinema and Sher Shah Park. Since 1879, the library is under the command of Cantonment Board. An official of the library said the city government was not funding the library for the last many years.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 26th, 2011.
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