124-year-old inscription has been taken down from the Pindi cantonment library

The Rawalpindi Cantonment Board (RCB) has removed the name of the 124-year-old library written on the building after transforming the main hall of the cantonment's only library into a computer section.

In 1983, former president Gen Ziaul Haq ordered the structure to be rebuilt. He contributed Rs1.8 million in funding and established a management team to oversee the library's operations.

In 1998, former president Farooq Ahmed Khan Leghari gave the library's management a grant.

The civic body's management, on the other hand, changed the main hall into a computer area without gaining permission from the Lansdowne Trust, and has since removed the library's name from the structure.

"The purpose of buildings and land reserved for public welfare, such as a mosque, library, park, and old buildings, cannot be modified under the law," a senior official of the civic authority said.

According to another RCB employee, a library is unnecessary because people are uninterested in such things.

"So, despite the fact that RCB's main offices are also housed in the library building and it pays monthly rent to Lansdowne Trust," he stated, "no book has been added to the library for the last two years."

When contacted, Raja Shahid Zafar, a member of the trust, indicated that members of the trust were unaware that the library's hall had been converted into an office and the library's name had been erased.

He said that the trust's members had not met in over six months, and that the municipal body should have notified the trust and obtained authorization first.

The Lansdowne Trust Library, also known as the Cantonment General Library, is located on The Mall, alongside the Odeon Cinema and Shah Baloot Park, and has been the cantonment's main attraction for the past 150 years.