Karachi: 16-20 February :

The Pakistan Institute for Parliamentary Services (PIPS) continues its mandate to support provincial legislatures in strengthening parliamentary research and information services. In this context, PIPS conducted a five-day technical training and system migration for the Sindh Assembly Library consequent upon the decisions taken under the 18th Speaker’s Conference held in Islamabad. Held from 16–20 February 2026, the activity focused on upgrading the Assembly’s existing Koha library system to the modern Koha 25.05 platform.

The migration was jointly carried out by the PIPS IT Wing and the library staff of the Research Wing under the supervision of DG (Research). Three member PIPS faculty team comprising Mr. Muhammad Nazir Khan DG IT, Mr. Qaiser Iqbal Librarian and Mr. Fayaz Gul Assistant Librarian conducted on job sessions for officers and staff of Library and IT teams of Provincial Assembly of Sindh. PIPS team jointly conducted more than 15 sessions in five days on 8 different modules of Koha.

During the sessions, participants received structured, hands-on training across key modules of Koha 25.05, including cataloging, acquisitions, circulation, patron management, OPAC settings, authority control, and report generation. Practical exercises on MARC field mapping, data cleanup, and system administration were also conducted to build the operational capacity of Sindh Assembly staff. MS. Munazza Abidi, Additional Secretary Library, led the Assembly Library team.

PIPS IT team also configured Koha backup server for Sindh Assembly to ensure inhouse data retention and secure backup management. Mr. Muhammad Sajid Director (I.T.) Sindh Assembly, appreciated this additional help offered by PIPS.

Secretary Sindh Assembly, Mr. Ghulam Muhammad Umar Farooq, appreciated the cooperation extended by the Pakistan Institute for Parliamentary Services PIPS and acknowledged the professionalism displayed by both teams throughout the exercise. He conveyed special thanks to Executive Director PIPS, Mr. Asim Khan Goraya, for facilitating this productive engagement and supporting the development of parliamentary information services.

Following the successful migration, the Sindh Assembly Library has been integrated into the PIPS central server and is now part of the parliamentary Union Catalog being developed by PIPS, enabling improved access to parliamentary resources and enhanced inter-institutional collaboration. Further work on circulation workflows and patron management is underway to ensure smooth operations under the upgraded system.

This initiative reflects PIPS firm commitment to strengthening parliamentary libraries and supporting provincial assemblies in adopting modern information management tools.