QUETTA: Social and political notables and intellectuals of Balochistan underlined the need on Sunday for reviving the book reading culture and establishing a relationship with books in the society again.

Distance from book reading had landed the people into a lot of problems in the country, they said.

They expressed these views at a seminar held at the Quetta Press Club on the International Day of Books.

They stressed the need for promoting book reading culture among the youth of Balochistan and said that every member of society should play his/her role in this regard and TV channels should also allocate some time in their transmissions for the noble purpose.

Nawabzada Haji Lashkari Khan Raisani, Abdul Mateen Akhundzada, Dr Shah Muhammad Marri, Mir Shahnawaz Marri, Maulana Abdul Haq Hashmi and Tariq Hussain spoke on the occasion.

Nawabzada Raisani said that he would contact elected representatives and ask them to pass resolutions to persuade TV channels to allocate time for introduction of at least five books daily in their transmissions, adding that this was necessary to develop book reading habit among the youth of Balochistan.

He said that everyone had to play his/her role for a peaceful and rational society, adding that in the 1970s educated people like Gul Khan Naseer, Nawab Ghous Bakhsh Raisani and Mir Ghous Bakhsh Bizenjo used to be elected, but unfortunately in today’s assembly politicians with fake degrees were elected.

Published in Dawn, April 24th, 2017