“Pashto Academy should conduct substantive research on old manuscripts and should launch a rigorous campaign comprising a team of scholars for collecting and retrieving old scrolls regarding Pashto language, history and culture.
He said he had already edited and published several old works of classical poets including one by a popular Pashto folk poet, Ahmadin Talib spreading over 600 pages. He said he had researched and preserved around 30 old manuscripts along with 11,000 rare books at his private library. Mian Wakeel Shah Faqirkhel, an expert on old manuscripts told this scribe that not only ancient manuscripts should be digitised but should also be published and be made available to readers especially those working on classical documents. We need a search team to collect more old manuscripts gathering dust at private collections to enrich our language and to know more about our classical age,” he observed. “I have published around 80 old books and discovered about five old manuscripts including Naam-i-Haq of Khushal Khan Khattak. He suggested young people should be trained on retrieving, collecting and preservation of such sensitive contents. He regretted only a few scholars could understand, Persian, Arabic and old Pashto orthography. Octogenarian Pashto writer, Hamish Khalil while sharing his views stated the Pashto Academy had stored valuable collection of old manuscripts and printed materials but lacked experts who could decipher old writings.
It is pertinent to mention here that over a decade ago, following an MoU with USAID, the Pashto Academy had digitised only 376 old manuscripts out of 1,453 but unfortunately the project was shelved after completion of its first phase owing to the alleged mishandling of the plan by the then academy’s officials. It said that the old manuscripts written in Pashto, Persian and Arabic worth millions of rupees needed urgent attention of the authorities concerned. A source added that still some of the manuscripts had been subjected to tampering or editing or change of nomenclature for vested interests. The sources said that some of the old documents had lost their vitality and at some places had been rendered illegible while a few had been damaged by bookworms. PESHAWAR: Built in 1955, with an objective to promote and preserve, Pashto language and literature, the Pashto Academy, University of Peshawar, has 1,077 rare and old manuscripts in addition to around 50,000 most valuable books, but now they are gathering dust and experts feared if arrangements were not made well in time, the precious treasure trove from the ancient world would soon go to waste.īeing exposed to biodegradation, bookworms, humidity and hot weather, over 1,000 rare manuscripts related to Pashto language, literature, history and culture were stuffed into shabby wooden cabinets due to lack of space and proper maintenance where it feared, the most precious ancient stock of Pashto scholarship would get annihilated forever, a well-placed source at the Pashto Academy told Dawn.
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