{"id":14943,"date":"2025-12-04T12:40:25","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T12:40:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/2025\/12\/04\/reviving-oral-history-pakistan-civil-service\/"},"modified":"2025-12-04T12:40:25","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T12:40:25","slug":"reviving-oral-history-pakistan-civil-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/2025\/12\/04\/reviving-oral-history-pakistan-civil-service\/","title":{"rendered":"Reviving Oral History in Pakistan Civil Service"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Institute of Policy Studies has launched a new anthology that foregrounds oral history to deepen understanding of Pakistan&#8217;s governance by documenting the lived experiences of veteran administrators. The volume drawn from <strong>The Living Scripts<\/strong> initiative captures personal recollections that collectively form a vital repository of institutional memory and practical insight for current and future civil servants.<\/p>\n<p>The launch of <strong>Beyond the Files: Conversations with Pakistani Civil Servants<\/strong>, held in collaboration with the National Book Foundation Islamabad, brought together former senior officials, diplomats, academics and policymakers. Speakers included Prof Dr Mukhtar Ahmed, Khalid Rahman, Syed Abu Ahmed Akif, Amb (r) Syed Abrar Hussain, Amb (r) Naghmana Hashmi, Dr Mujeeb Afzal and Murad Ali Mohmand, all of whom emphasised the unique value of oral history for capturing decision-making contexts and administrative culture.<\/p>\n<p>Contributors noted that these oral narratives go beyond memoirs to offer an inside view of policy formation, crisis management and the institutional challenges that have shaped Pakistan&#8217;s administrative journey. The project underlines how oral history strengthens the archival record and provides granular perspectives that formal files and reports often miss.<\/p>\n<p>Speakers urged retired officials to record their experiences and called for robust support to situate personal accounts within broader reference points so readers can achieve balanced interpretation. Emphasis was also placed on nurturing a reading and documentation culture among public servants and youth, since reflective writing and honest self-assessment are essential to improving institutional practice and sustaining knowledge across generations.<\/p>\n<p>Commentators stressed that writing about governance should reflect a distinctly Pakistani mindset and prioritize truth-telling that is fair and constructive. Such an approach to documentation and oral history, they argued, also has implications for foreign policy thinking, which must be informed by local experience and grounded perspectives rather than external templates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Discover how oral history in Pakistan&#8217;s civil service preserves institutional memory and guides future administrators from IPS&#8217;s new anthology.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":14942,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14943\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}