The National Archives of Pakistan is a body established by the Government of Pakistan

Government of Pakistan

The Government of Pakistan is a federal parliamentary system, with an indirectly-elected President as the Head of State and Commander in Chief of the Pakistani Armed Forces, and an indirectly-elected Prime Minister as the Head of Government. The President’s appointment and term are...

 for the purpose of preserving and making available public and private records which have bearings on the history

History of Pakistan

The 1st known inhabitants of the modern-day Pakistan region are believed to have been the Soanian , who settled in the Soan Valley and Riwat almost 2 million years ago. Over the next several thousand years, the region would develop into various civilizations like Mehrgarh and the Indus Valley...

, culture and heritage of Pakistan

Pakistan

Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

. Located in Islamabad

Islamabad

Islamabad is the capital of Pakistan and the tenth largest city in the country. Located within the Islamabad Capital Territory , the population of the city has grown from 100,000 in 1951 to 1.7 million in 2011...

, the National Archives of Pakistan is a member of the International Council on Archives

International Council on Archives

The International Council on Archives is an international non-governmental organization which exists to promote international cooperation in archiving. It was set up in 1948, with Charles Samaran, the then director of the Archives de France, as chairman. It is open to membership of national and...

. Some of its stated functions are the acquisition, preservation, conservation, reprography, restoration, automation, dissemination and access of documents. NAP is also responsible for the facilitation of important state documents and collections of dated files.

History

The Directorate of Archives and Libraries was established in 1951 under the Ministry of Education. On 8 December 1973, the directorate was bifurcated into two which gave rise to a separate National Archives under the authority of the Culture Division.