Bazm-e-Akram honours Syed Abad Ali

Pakistan News & Features Services

Syed Abad Ali Abad, one of the veteran library scientists and an alumnus of the Library & Information Science department of the University of Karachi, was honoured by Bazm-e-Akram in Karachi on May 29.

Having relocated in Toronto, Canada, for the past one decade, Abad Ali is currently on a private visit to his hometown and he will be staying in Karachi until the first week of the next month.

He was thrilled by the warmth of his former colleagues and contemporaries as they shared the memories of their student life besides discussing their latest engagements in scholastic arena.

Prof Dr Nasim Fatima, the driving force behind Bazm-e-Akram, was informed about her popularity and influence in the LIS circles of Canada.

“Many of your worthy students, having settled there over the years, take pride in your accomplishments and keep a track of your professional activities through books, magazines, websites, online journals and blogs. They hold you in very esteem and derive inspiration from you,” Abad Ali told Prof Dr Nasim Fatima.

“The annual visit of the highly respected Prof Dr Ghani-ul-Akram Sabzwari to Toronto helps in regrouping the LIS professionals in that part of the world, having moved from Pakistan. We miss our homeland on many occasions and we remain eager to be of help or assistance to the LIS community in Pakistan,” he added.

Abad Ali,who brought with a couple of group photographs of a conference of the Pakistan Library Association (PLA) held at Lahore way back in March 1965, expressed the desire to write an article on the event and he was promptly encouraged to go ahead and do it early.

Prof Dr Nasim Fatima, in her brief remarks, welcomed the visiting LIS veteran and hoped that he would continue devoting his energies in the promotion of the profession to inspire the younger generation.

Dr Nasreen Shagufta, Vice President, Bazm-e-Akram, presented a copy of her book ‘Darakhshan Sitaray’ to Abad Ali who not only praised the contents of the book but also praised the author for her regular articles in the Pakistan Library and Information Science (PLISJ), the quarterly publication of the Library Promotion Bureau (LPB).

Besides Prof Dr Nasim Fatima and Dr Nasreen Shagufta, the lively brunch reception hosted in the honour of Abad Ali was attended by quite a few other officials of Bazm-e-Akram which included Dr Amna Khatoon, Syed Ateeb Ahmed, Zain Siddiqui, Azra Qureshi and Syed Khalid Mahmood.