KARACHI, Sept 2: The City Nazim, Naimatullah Khan, ordered on Tuesday the revival of the Frere Hall’s Sunday book bazaar.

Taking strong note of the closure of the bazaar at which second-hand books used to be sold and bought, Mr Khan criticized the officials for having pulled the plug on an activity which had become very popular among book lovers.

He claimed that the concerned department had stopped holding the bazaar owing to a misunderstanding. Nobody had informed him of the extreme step of closure.

Observing that the bazaar prior to its closure was attracting a large number of book lovers, especially those who could not afford to buy new books, the City Nazim asked the department to hold a bazaar on the coming Sunday. He declared that he would himself visit the bazaar on Sunday.

The Sunday book bazaar was closed by the Sindh government on Aug 24 at the request of the United States consul-general. Last week the provincial Home Minister Aftab Shaikh had told Dawn that the decision to close the weekly book bazaar had been taken to provide maximum security to the US consulate, situated on Abdullah Haroon Road, and the residence of the US consul-general, on the Fatima Jinnah Road.

“(The) Frere Hall is very close to the US consulate and the residence of the US consul-general, who had expressed reservations about security arrangements in the locality,” he said. “There is such a large crowd at the Sunday book bazaar on the lawns of Frere Hall that it is very difficult to tighten up security in an effective manner.

“The Sindh government, therefore, decided to close the Sunday book bazaar,” the minister said, adding that the booksellers would be offered another site to hold a bazaar.