By Abdul Qadir Qureshi
(Pakistan News & Features Services)
The Founder President of the Library Promotion Bureau (LPB), Prof Dr Ghani-ul-Akram Sabzwari, has left for the United States of America (USA) after an extended stay of nearly a year in Pakistan on November 1.
According to details, the LPB founder, who had originally arrived for five-month visit of his home country last November, could not return at the designated time which was in the last week of March this year as flights to USA had been suspended due to the outbreak of the pandemic.
Although life generally had come to standstill in most parts of the world, including Pakistan, with lockdowns and social distancing becoming norms due to coronavirus (COVID-19) since the mid of March, it went to the credit of Prof Dr Ghani-ul-Akram Sabzwari to have worked passionately from home all along.
As lockdown restrictions were relaxed after a few months, he resumed visiting the record office of LPB, a pioneering non-governmental organization in the field of education and research. He ensured the timely publication of the Pakistan Library & Information Science Journal (PLISJ) although the delivery of the quarterly magazine to its members and subscribers was affected for some time due to postal issues.
He continued coming to the LPB office, housed in the complex of Liaquat Memorial Library, Karachi, regularly and he last spoke during the felicitation ceremony for Jumbo Publishing’s new book ‘Mayar-e-Zindagi’ on October 28.
As in the past, Prof Dr Nasim Fatima, Chief Editor, Adab Wa Kutub Khana, will now be spearheading the bureau’s activities from Pakistan in the absence of its founder and leader.
The first lady chairperson of the Library and Information Science department at the University of Karachi, Prof Dr Nasim Fatima has been chiefly responsible for setting up and operating what has become a tastefully decorated record office of the LPB.
