WHEN an audit team raised a strange objection in its annual audit report on the working of Lahore’s Majlis-i-Taraqqi-i-Adab (MTA), Ahmed Nadeem Qasmi (1916-2006) was MTA’s director. The audit report said that the MTA had been working for over half-a-century, but it had not been able to become a commercially viable entity. The report also gave the example of a cloth merchant’s shop that would become profitable in a couple of years, implying the MTA was a drain on public funds.
The report reflected the mind of a typical sarkari babu (government officer), not able to see beyond the end of his nose. Qasmi Sahib, one of Urdu’s most celebrated authors and the long-serving director of the MTA, took offence and protested as it was shocking for him to see that the nation was no more able to differentiate between a literary organisation and a cloth shop. The writers, poets and intellectuals from across the country stood with Qasmi Sahib. The then provincial chief minister took notice, apologised and announced an additional fund of millions of rupees for the MTA, suggesting that literary bodies were not a burden on the exchequer.
The incident has two lessons: the government, whether provincial or federal, must not expect literary and cultural organisations to earn profit as none of the aims and objectives of establishing these bodies was to earn profit. Terming cultural or literary bodies ‘loss-making enterprises’ is a folly as they were not meant to do business in the first place. These bodies are responsible for promoting literary, linguistic and cultural activities in the country and presenting a soft image through encouraging fine arts and aesthetic values.
And the second lesson is for the literary and cultural bodies themselves: do not think in business terms. Though it is always good to generate revenues, it should not be the basic intention of a cultural or literary organisation to earn profit. A literary organisation must carry out cultural activities and publish academic, research and critical works of high standards, whether they sell well or not, because this is what the government funds are for. Making available at affordable prices the quality books that no commercial publisher would publish for the fear of losing money is exactly the kind of work a literary body is supposed to do and this is what our literary heavyweights did while heading country’s literary bodies. For instance, Molvi Abdul Haq published, while heading Anjuman Taraqqi-i-Urdu, hundreds of rare manuscripts, research works and works of academic value that otherwise would have never seen the light of day, because Moulvi Sahib knew that no commercial publisher would risk publishing this treasure and it was the job of the Anjuman to bring forth these gems.
But now the priorities are different. Urdu Dictionary Board, for example, used to sell a copy of each of its 22-volume dictionary at an affordable price and allowed a hefty discount. A few years ago, they raised the price of each volume manifold and brought down the ratio of discount, too. Why? Perhaps to earn profit and discourage the readers in the process. Similarly, Quaid-i-Azam Academy used to sell volumes of historic Qauid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah Papers at an affordable price. A few years ago, however, the price was increased manifold. Now hardly any student or a common Pakistani can afford to buy the full set of Qauid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah Papers or Dictionary Board’s 22 volumes. What is stranger is that these organisations had got these books printed decades ago at a very low cost and the copies of the publications are still dumped in their storages. But they will not sell it cheaply, repelling readers and inviting mice, cockroaches and termite to feast upon them.
Literary and cultural bodies must understand that they are not mere publishing houses nor are they running a business. But now some of these bodies have started charging writers substantial sums of money for getting their literary works published. A scholar informed this writer that her doctoral dissertation was published a couple of years ago by a Karachi-based literary organisation that receives millions of rupees every year both from the provincial and federal governments, but they pressurised her to pay what they called ‘the cost of printing, because research works do not sell’.
The heads of literary and cultural bodies now want to ‘cover the cost of printing books’, conveniently forgetting that if the salaries and other expenses are included in the cost of books printed, every single copy would have to be priced in millions and it would defeat the very purpose of their existence. They must remember that they are not a cloth shop but a cultural entity.
Published in Dawn, July 6th, 2026
