Bahawalpur Central Library: A treasure trove of rare books to be digitised.

BAHAWALPUR -- The South Punjab Secretariat, Bahawalpur, has prepared an ambitious plan to digitise a treasure trove of rare books, manuscripts and old newspapers, available at the Central Library here, by spending millions.

This was stated by South Punjab Additional Chief Secretary (ACS) Saqib Zafar during inspection of the library on Monday.

The library, Sadiq Reading Room, was established in 1924 during the reign of late Nawab Sadiq Muhammad Khan Abbasi, has a collection of over 150,000 books on different topics, in addition of rare manuscripts of Holy Quran and thousands of files of (many of them now closed) newspapers like The Pakistan Times, Imroze, New-Delhi and Karachi and some others published during the (now defunct) Bahawalpur State rule.

The library's precious assets, which had been preserved by the chief librarians, also include very important documents and gazetteers of the Bahawalpur State government.

According to an official handout issued here, South Punjab ACS Saqib Zafar said during his visit that the library's entire record would be digitised with the coordination of the Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB). He also assured that necessary funds for this purpose would be allocated in the next year's budget.

During the visit, Chief Librarian Rana Javed Iqbal briefed the ACS, apprising him in detail of the books and other rare literary treasures collected...