Tucked behind shops in the Rehmanpura locality of Ichhra, a narrow street houses Kitab Ghar, a public library and a citizen initiative, launched by a group of eight young friends.

The group of friends thought of the project and started working on it in November last year in a three-room portion of a house, which was in pretty bad condition. The organisers rehabilitated and renovated the rooms in the next couple of months to give it a funky look and launched a library.

Bilal Mushtaq, one of the two coordinators who have been employed to work for the library, guides Dawn through the three rooms, one having a set of chairs and table while the other having carpet and cushions. There is a courtyard outside where literary and cultural activities are held when needed.

A young man from Balochistan is preparing notes for his Balochistan Public Service Commission exams. He considers the library a blessing for him as he could prepare for his exams in a peaceful atmosphere near his residence. His other option was to go to the Quaid-i-Azam Library in Lawrence Gardens, which took time while fares had also increased. Another young man is busy reading in the other room.

Two main rooms have got books in the carefully fixed shelves along the wall. One room has English language books while the other is reserved for Urdu and Punjabi books. The books are on diversified topics but most of them are of literature.

“A group of eight friends first thought of opening a library and they implemented their idea this year. The library was launched in January,” says Ameer Hamza Khan, the head of the project. The library was launched on a self-help basis and funding from contributors.

“In the first month of the launch (January), an amount of Rs72,000 was raised and in March, the funding touched Rs100,000 mark,” he says.

In April too, the library raised Rs100,000, including Rs63,000 from monthly contributions and Rs34,000 from different initiatives. In July, the funding touched the Rs200,000 mark. The details of the funding were shared publicly through the social media pages of the library.

“There are about 15 people from Pakistan and abroad who regularly contribute to the library funds with Rs5,000 or more monthly contributions on a regular basis,” says Khan.

At the start, he adds, there were fewer books in the library but the number increased by and by. Literary events like meet-the-author and book launches and cultural events like film screening started happening there and it started growing from there. The literary events and talks are held under Jadeed Adabi Baithak where weekly discussions have been held on the masters of Urdu literature such as Krishan Chander, Ismat Chughtai, Manto and Rajinder Singh Bedi.

Now the library has 2,000 books. Most of them have been donated by the people and donation of the books started with the founders; however, some books are bought through funds as well, Khan says.

“The library offers language learning courses also. It started with a Punjabi language course but later Urdu and Hindu language courses were also organised. A part of money collected through language classes goes to library funds while the rest is paid to the teacher,” says Khan.

On Aug 14, the library hosted a documentary on the Partition of India. In July, it held a discussion with volunteers of Aurat March. An eight-week long course was launched in June on the ‘history of others in Pakistan’. A talk was held with Punjabi poet Sabir Ali Sabir in April on spiritualism, Punjabi and modernism under the Jadeed Adabi Baithak initiative.

“The membership of the library has increased. Anybody can become a member by paying Rs500 monthly but those who can’t afford to pay that amount can pay whatever amount he/she can afford,” says Khan, who adds that those who are not members of the library can still come and use it for reading. They can’t get the books issued and take them home.

Ameer Hamza Khan has also developed a software for cataloguing the books of the library and its website.

Asked why the library site (Rehmanpura, Ichhra) was selected for launching the library, he says it is a citizens initiative launched for the welfare of the local population. The area of Rehmanpura is densely populated and it needed a library. There is a hostel for boys just along the library and lots of young men living in the hostel use the library too. Anybody who is not a member of the library can come in it, sit there and read for free. Now the AC has also been installed while there is UPS already available in case of power outages.

“To coordinate with the members and visitors, Kitab Ghar has engaged about 25 to 30 young volunteers from universities. They remain in the library three hours a week. There are more volunteers in vacation or when semesters are off in the universities,” Khan says.

Dawn met two girl students of the Beaconhouse National University, who were volunteering as coordinators at the library. They work at the library once a week while different pairs of volunteers remain present in the library throughout the day.

“The rent of the building is quite high; however, the funding is on the rise. We have decided to expand the library by taking more adjacent rooms on rent,” says Khan.

Published in Dawn, August 21st, 2022