KARACHI: The five-day 12th Karachi International Book Fair (KIBF) organised by the Pakistan Publishers and Booksellers’ Association (PPBA) opened at the Expo Centre on Thursday.

The three halls of the venue were dotted with all kinds of books. Book lovers started to pour into the arena way before the formal inauguration ceremony took place (which actually kicked off more than an hour late). It was such a delight to see schoolchildren coming in with a great deal of enthusiasm. In the first half of the day, most of the children who came belonged to the densely populated middle-class areas of the city. Azizzullah, a student of the Iqra Excellent High School in Landhi, was especially chirpy. He and his half a dozen classmates were excitedly moving around the halls looking for books. “We’ve bought story books in English,” he enthused. He wanted to learn English.

There were many stalls that visitors thronged to on Thursday, beginning with the ones that had paperbacks for children — there were the usual fairytale and nursery rhyme books, alongside those that were to do with how to improve ‘writing skills’.

Books on religion and religious learning always have a strong presence at the fair, and this year is no different. The computer science category too had its takers.

On one stall, under the caption ‘fiction’, novels could be had for as cheap a price as Rs100 apiece. Stephen Fry’s The Liar and The Real Life of Alejandro Mayta by the celebrated writer Mario Vergas Llosa were being sold for Rs200.

Among the top publishing houses, the Urdu Science Board had its stall next to the one representing the Pakistan Academy of Letters. The National Book Foundation, which collaborates with the PPBA in organising the fair, also had a pretty sizable presence.

Among the 10 participating countries, as claimed by the organisers, Turkey is taking part in the event for the first time. The Turkish publishing house YDS, which prints English learning textbooks, had a few smartly dressed people manning the stall. Talking to Dawn, Serhat Tuna of YDS said: “It’s nice to be in Pakistan. Our countries have a good relationship and now we are also strengthening our relations in the field of publications.”

Though Indian delegates couldn’t come to the KIBF, their stalls were getting a decent amount of attention. One of them was of Random Publications, New Delhi.

The formal inauguration of the fair began with the welcome address by KIBF chairman Aziz Khalid. Renowned journalist and poet Mahmood Shaam delivered the main speech of the ceremony. He said the fair was in its 12th edition, and things were looking good because after 12, a child entered teenage. He said the [Western] nations who had adopted technology hadn’t lost any love for books. He said the people who had announced ‘books are dead’ after the feats that computer technology had begun to achieve themselves disappeared into oblivion. He said the older the books got the more valuable they became, whereas old computers were of no use. He said books were the only beloved that never betrayed their lovers. They, he said, were even willing to share their solitude (tanhai).

In the last part of his speech he gave some suggestions to government functionaries present on the occasion, one of which was to celebrate a library day on an official level.

Karachi Mayor Waseem Akhtar spoke about his days in jail. He said he intended to write a book.

Highlighting the importance of books Sindh Minister for Literacy and Education Jam Mahtab Dahar said whatever was uploaded on the Internet first appeared in the form of a book. He lamented that our libraries were empty.

Owais Mirza Jamil delivered the vote of thanks.

The master of ceremonies of the inaugural segment would have been better served had he done away with his own little speeches and by not reciting too many Urdu couplets before inviting the guests to speak.

Published in Dawn, December 16th, 2016