KARACHI, Dec 23: Organisers of the fourth Karachi International Book Fair (KIBF), scheduled to start on Friday, December 26, at the city’s Expo Centre, said that only through the attainment of knowledge could Pakistan attain political and economic independence, allowing the nation to rise above the current crises in which it was mired.

This was stated during an introductory press conference for the five-day event, held at a local hotel on Tuesday.

Iqbal Saleh Muhammad, convener of the KIBF, said that the spread of knowledge and the diffusion of quality education throughout Pakistan was the driving philosophy behind the book fair, and that the organisers felt holding the event was a duty, despite the turbulent political and security situation that has existed in the country during the past few years.

Aziz Khalid, convenor of the Publishers’ Standing Committee, said that the organisers took the prevalent instability as a challenge and wanted to expand the book fair to Peshawar, Quetta and Islamabad, though the situation at the moment was not feasible for this, adding that some of the other cities also lacked facilities for holding large fairs.

The inauguration of the book fair will take place on Friday at 11am at the Expo Centre. Sindh Minister for Industries Rauf Siddiqui is scheduled to be chief guest while Professor Dr Qasim Raza Siddiqui, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Karachi, will be the guest of honour.

The fair, organised by the Pakistan Publishers and Booksellers Association in collaboration with the National Book Foundation, will feature 275 bookstalls spread over three halls of the Expo Centre, says the press release handed out at the news conference. Publishers from the United Kingdom, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Singapore, Jordan and Iran are expected to participate.

When an organiser was asked to comment on the likelihood of Indian publishers taking part in the KIBF keeping in mind the current tense regional situation, he downplayed the importance of the presence (or lack thereof) of Pakistan’s eastern neighbour at the KIBF. “We have enamoured ourselves with India. A few private Indian publishers will be participating.

However, we must remember that there are other publishers in the world, too. For instance, Jordan and Iran are participating for the first time. We are also trying to get Saudi Arabian and Lebanese publishers to participate in the future.”

The organisers said that apart from the book stalls, an ‘activity area’ – inspired by the Frankfurt Book Fair (the world’s largest) – will give writers an opportunity to interact with publishers while children’s activities will include science quizzes, story-telling sessions and colouring sessions.

Between 250,000 to 300,000 titles, including children’s books, textbooks, research, scientific, technical and general interest books are expected to be displayed at the fair, with books in English, Urdu, Arabic, Persian, Sindhi, Pashto and Punjabi to be included.