HMML is actively pursuing projects in Pakistan and throughout South Asia. HMML’s first project in Pakistan began in 2020 with Anjuman-e-Taraqqi-e Urdu (Karachi), a historic literary collection established in 1903 to promote Urdu literature and language. The collection was divided at the time of India’s partition, with half the manuscripts remaining in Delhi and the other half relocated to Pakistan. By digitizing and cataloging the Anjuman-e-Taraqqi-e in Pakistan, partners may reach the ultimate goal of someday bringing these manuscripts together with their counterparts in Delhi and digitally uniting the original collection.

In 2023, HMML began working with four additional libraries in Pakistan: Bait al-Hikmah Library (Karachi), Dār al-Taṣnīf va al-Taḥqīq Faiṣalābād (Faisalābād), Idārā-yi Taʻlīmāt-i Qurʼānīyah (Rawalpindi), Kutub K̲h̲ānah-yi Muḥammad Anvar (Lahore), and Masood Jhandir Research Library (Sardarpur Jhandir). Bait al-Hikmah Library is the main research library at Hamdard University in Karachi, established in 1989. Named after the famous and destroyed library in Baghdad of Abū Jaʻfar al-Manṣūr, it houses about 300,000 books, including rare manuscripts. Dār al-Taṣnīf va al-Taḥqīq Faiṣalābād was established in 1965 and holds approximately 1,000 manuscripts in in Urdu, Panjabi, Persian, Arabic, and Rachnavi. Idārā-yi Taʻlīmāt-i Qurʼānīyah, founded in 1803, holds 900 manuscripts, largely containing materials on the topics of Islamic law, the Qurʼan, and hadith. Kutub K̲h̲ānah-yi Muḥammad Anvar, located in Lahore, was established in 1989 and holds a noteworthy collection of 800 manuscripts. Masood Jhandir Research Library, founded in 1890, is located in the countryside of the southern Punjab in Sardarpur Jhandir. Many of the 2,000 manuscripts in the collection are of Afghan origin, brought into the Punjab in the 19th and early 20th century by families seeking sanctuary.

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