Ahmad Salim, also known as Muhammad Salim Khawaja, is a writer, archivist, and co-founder of the South Asian Resource and Research Centre, a private repository established in 2001.
Early Life and Education
Salim Khawaja was born in the village of Miana Gondal in the Gujrat District of Punjab, Pakistan, as the fourth of seven brothers and sisters. Salim received his primary and secondary schooling in Miana Gondal before relocating to Peshawar for matriculation. Salim met writers and poets such as Farigh Bukhari, Mohsin Ahsan, Raza Hamdani, and Jauhar Meer while studying in Peshawar.
Salim came to Karachi for his intermediate education after matriculating from Peshawar. He got admission to Urdu College. Ahmad Salim took part in a competition hosted by the literary magazine Afkar at that time. Participants were requested to write out their comments on the poetry of Faiz Ahmad Faiz. The competition was won by Ahmad Salim’s poem about Faiz. Faiz was the principal of Abdullah Haroon College during the time. Faiz invited Ahmad Salim to enter Abdullah Haroon College. Faiz and Ahmad Salim had a close connection that lasted till Faiz’s death in 1984.
Career
Ahmad Salim joined the National Bank in 1968 after completing high school (intermediate). He was later transferred to Rawalpindi, where he worked for the bank until 1969. Ahmad Salim later relocated to Lahore and began teaching at Shah Hussain College. He was a member of the National Awami Party (NAP) from 1969 to 1971 and was temporarily imprisoned in 1971 for criticising the Pakistan Army’s operation in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).
Faiz was appointed Chairman of the National Council of Arts by Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in 1972. Ahmad Salim joined the council at Faiz’s suggestion. From 1972 until 1975, Ahmad Salim worked for the National Council of Arts, where he ran the Folklore Research Centre and published material on Punjabi and Sindhi folklore. Ahmad Salim resigned from the Council shortly after Faiz’s death in 1974.
Ahmad Salim lectured at Sindh University, Jamshoro, from 1976 to 1977. He generated the course content for a course on Pakistani languages. Shaikh Ayaz was the Vice-Chancellor of Sindh University at the time. Ahmad Salim maintained friendly ties with Shaikh Ayaz since he translated Ayaz’s poems into Punjabi. At Sindh University, Ahmad Salim’s main task was to translate Shah Hussain’s poetry into Sindhi and Bhitai work into Punjabi, however he was unable to finish the latter. Ahmad Salim earned his Bachelor of Arts degree while studying at Sindh University.
In late 1977, Ahmad Salim relocated to Karachi after Bhutto declared martial law. He authored TV show reviews for Daily Aman there. Ahmad Salim also did a lot of translation work for extra money and became known as Ahmad Salim Muttarajjim (translator). He received admission to Karachi University’s MA Philosophy program in 1979. He graduated from MA with a gold medal. Around that period, Ahmad Salim tied the knot. He began editing JafaKash, a labour magazine, in 1981. Ahmad Salim taught a course on Pakistani languages at Karachi University from 1985 to 1988, the same course he had taught at Sindh University. Ahmad Salim relocated to Lahore after divorcing his wife in 1988. From that marriage, he has one daughter.
When President Ghulam Ishaque Khan disbanded Pakistan’s National and Provincial assemblies in 1990, the Jang group hired Ahmad Salim to write a book about the dissolution of assemblies in Pakistan. Ahmad Salim immediately discovered the scarcity of research materials as well as the difficulty in collecting information from government institutions. He began collecting and archiving items of historical significance. Thus began his work as an archivist.
From 1996 to June 2007, Ahmad Salim was the Director of Urdu Publications for the NGO Sustainable Development Policy Institute. He continues to undertake part-time research for that organisation. In appreciation of his contribution to literature, he earned the Islamic Republic of Pakistan’s Pride of Performance Award in 2010.
South Asian Research and Resource Centre
Salim and his Christian friends, Leonard and Nosheen D’souza, founded the South Asian Research and Resource Centre (SARRC) in 2001. SARRC is a private, non-profit archive concentrating on development and peace, with a particular emphasis on religious minorities and indigenous peoples’ rights. It was the first to provide resource and documentation services in Pakistan’s non-profit sector.
SARRC contains a variety of information regarding minorities, development, gender, security, and violence, all of which have been crucial to the evolution of the region’s history and society. The SARRC has collected and stored information such as fact sheets, unpublished material, manuscripts, policy papers, and official reports from various Commissions and Committees. Almost all of the essential newspapers, periodicals, books, reports, and records written throughout the last two centuries have been preserved in one location.
Books
Salim has written several books on Pakistan history.
- Aḥmad Salim; Amrita Pritam (2003)
- Aḥmad Salim (2001). Ten days that dismembered Pakistan: March 15 – March 25, 1971, the real story of Yahya-Mujib-Bhutto talks.
- Aḥmad Salīm (1991). Pashtun and Baloch history: Punjabi view
- Aḥmad Salīm (1997). Blood beaten track: Sheikh Mujib’s nine months in Pakistan prison.