The Pakistan Library Association (PLA) is a representative national body of

librarian A librarian is a person who works professionally in a library providing access to information, and sometimes social or technical programming, or instruction on information literacy to users. The role of the librarian has changed much over time ...

s in

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

. It was formed in

Karachi Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former c ...

in March 1957. It is responsible for looking after the interests of the professional librarians who work for the development and improvement of libraries both in formal and informal sectors of education and research. It also acts as a liaison between Pakistani organizations with similar aims and objectives as international library organizations and promotes the image of librarians in society. Prior to the formation of PLA there was the Pakistan Bibliographical Working Group (PBWG) which promoted library activities. According to Dr. Anis Khurshid, an ad hoc committee meeting of the PBWG on 6 July 1954 chaired by H. A. Qazi formed a National Association for Librarians. The committee members included Syed Vilayat Hussain, Khawaja Noor Elahi, Fazal-e-Elahi and Akhtar H. Siddiqui. The PLA is a registered body under the Societies Act XXI of 1960. Its membership is open to all library professionals of the country. The association has organized 18 conferences so far. In addition to regular meetings, the PLA arranges library seminars, workshops, discussions, book exhibitions, etc. It also has published a newsletter and a quarterly journal entitled ''PLA Journal''. The association has a headquarters and five branches in four provincial capitals and the Federal Capital,

Islamabad Islamabad (; ur, , ) is the capital city of Pakistan. It is the country's ninth-most populous city, with a population of over 1.2 million people, and is federally administered by the Pakistani government as part of the Islamabad Capital ...

. The headquarters of the PLA rotates between Karachi,

Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city ...

, Islamabad,

Peshawar Peshawar (; ps, پېښور ; hnd, ; ; ur, ) is the sixth most populous city in Pakistan, with a population of over 2.3 million. It is situated in the north-west of the country, close to the International border with Afghanistan. It is ...

and

Quetta Quetta (; ur, ; ; ps, کوټه‎) is the tenth most populous city in Pakistan with a population of over 1.1 million. It is situated in south-west of the country close to the International border with Afghanistan. It is the capital of ...

every two years. Its present council is in Peshawar with Dr. Saeed Ullah Jan as its president and Mr. Muhammad Khan Marwat as its Secretary General.

References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control Educational organisations based in Pakistan Library associations Libraries in Pakistan