Haider, Part 5
Dr. Abdus Subuh Qasimi (1917–1999) [18]
Dr. Qasimi was born on 12 December 1917 in the village of Ziarat Kaka Sahib, Tehsil Nowshera district, Peshawar, in a middle class religious family. He matriculated in 1935 and earned his Fazil–e–Deoband in 1941. In 1946 he completed a certificate course in librarianship from the University of Punjab. He started his professional career in the Punjab University Library in 1947 as an Oriental assistant. Most probably he was appointed to catalogue Arabic books at the Punjab University because of his proficiency in Arabic language and literature. He received his B.A. and M.A. from the Punjab University in 1952 and 1954 respectively.
In 1955 he received his M.A. in Library Science from Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio. Between 1964 and 1967 he was at Columbia University for his Doctorate in Library Science. He developed A Code for Cataloging Materials Published in Urdu, Pushto, and Panjabi under the guidance of Maurice F. Tauber. He was also associated with the Library of Congress as a consultant for some time in the mid–1960s.
He served as the founding librarian of Peshawar University from 1951 to 1972. It was through his initiative and efforts that a post–graduate diploma in library science was instituted in 1962 at the University of Peshawar. Between 1967 and 1968 he was the librarian of the King Abdul Aziz University, Jeddah. He also worked as Registrar of the Peshawar University between 1969 and 1972. In the early 1970s, he rejoined the King Abdul Aziz University and stayed there for several years. He retired after serving the Ummul Qura University, Makkah, for nearly a decade.
He was instrumental in the development of the profession in North–Western Frontier Province, being the founding librarian of the Peshawar University and the founding Chairperson of its Department of Library and Information Science.
He took an active part in the activities of the Pakistan Library Association in the initial years of its formation. He was the chief organizer of the second annual conference of the Pakistan Library Association, held in 1959 at Peshawar. He was also associated with the activities of the Society for the Promotion and Improvement of Libraries and the Pakistan Bibliographical Working Group.
Syed Villayat Husain (1910–1974) [19]
Popularly known as Shah Sahib, he will always be remembered for his activities from the platform of the Pakistan Library Association, the Pakistan Bibliographical Working Group, and the Karachi Library Association. In fact, he was associated with all three organizations for more than a quarter of a century, beginning in 1949 until his last breath in 1974 at Peshawar, where he was supervising a national survey on reading habits for the Pakistan Library Association.
Shah Sahib was born in Lahore in 1910. He received his B.A. from the University of the Punjab in 1934, and obtained his certificate in Library Science from the University of the Punjab in 1938. What made him choose librarianship was never disclosed by him. His first professional appointment was as librarian of St. Stephen College, Delhi from 1939 to 1945. From 1945 to 1950 he was the librarian of S.M. College, Karachi. He was the librarian of the British Council, Karachi between 1950 and 1953. In 1953 he joined the Government of Pakistan as the founding librarian of the Liaquat National Library. He was promoted to be Assistant Director of Libraries, Government of Pakistan in 1958, a post he held until his retirement in 1964. He was also associated with the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research.
Conclusion
All of the above great men are now dead. This author has the privilege of meeting all of them except Asadullah. In fact, three of them were teachers at the LIS Department during the academic year 1959–1960. Much could be written about each but the limitation of space doesn’t permit this. It can be concluded that they are now part of the history of Pakistani librarianship because of their contributions. The coming generation will definitely ponder what made them great. In fact, they approached things from the right angle. Above all, they were sincere with the profession despite human weakness of all kinds.