Following the partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947, there were few attempts either on institutional or individual levels to transcribe, edit and preserve the play-texts or scripts of plays written in the Urdu language. Even these scarce attempts were limited to preserving what were deemed to be highly literary works or constituted the ‘classics’. This thwarted any significant evolution of theatre in Urdu in Pakistan. The advent of television plays or soaps proved another stumbling block for theatre. This study traces the history of the transcription, compilation and editing of Urdu stage plays in Pakistan from 1947 to 2022, as it simultaneously explores and analyses the context of this tradition of preserving play-texts. The Higher Education Commission of Pakistan (HEC) has played a significant role in the endeavor to compile and edit fifteen of the most well-written, thematically significant and culturally relevant unpublished play-texts in Pakistan. The present study acknowledges the role of the HEC. Moreover, in collaboration with the NRPU, the present project has studied, analyzed, compiled and edited original unpublished play-texts from the country, and has also presented its findings to promote creative writing for stage. It has also suggested measures for preserving and publishing such plays. These recommendations have been made with a view to promote Urdu theatre among the youth in Pakistan, and to make theatre itself a career option for talented young writers, directors, actors and technicians. The overall aim is to revive theatre in a way that it represents and debates Pakistan’s social, economic and political realities.