What a pity that Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, has everything galore except libraries which are a short commodity. It is said that in the original blueprint of the federal capital there was a provision that every residential sector will have a library of its own. That promise was, however, never kept.
There is one big national library in the federal capital but to call it a library is a misnomer. It functions like a government office rather than a library. This is true of other cities of the country too. Time was when municipal committees used to have well stocked libraries of their own. Besides, they also ran reading rooms in the populated areas of the cities. No longer is the case now. The condition of college libraries too is far from satisfactory. The colleges are always starved of funds and they are not in a position to develop college libraries with their skimpy budgets.
In foreign countries the libraries function till late nights and are not closed even on Saturdays and Sundays. Unfortunately education has never been a priority of any government in this country.
POSTSCRIPT: Zardari has assumed full control of his party, hook, line and sinker and he has started concentrating on Panjab. He knows that without making inroads into Nawaz League’s vote bank in Panjab, the PPP stands no chance of forming its government in Islamabad. It seems that he is no hurry to go to the hustings before 2018 because he realises that he has yet to reorganise his party which is in a shambles in the country at the moment.
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