ISLAMABAD: The National Book Foundation’s (NBF) board of governors has not met since 2010, a Senate functional committee was told on Thursday.

The Senate Functional Committee on Problems of Less Developed Areas met at Parliament House to discuss various matters, including the performance of the NBF with particular attention to less developed areas.

A statement issued by the Senate Secretariat after the meeting stated: “The committee was informed that from 2010 to date, no meeting of the NBF board was held as this important board was incomplete.”

Committee chair Senator Mohammad Usman Khan Kakar directed the government to constitute the NBF board in accordance with the rules, and said vacant positions at the foundation should be filled within three months.

Sources in the NBF told Dawn that the problem is in the 1972 NBF Act. When the NBF was formed, they said, it was part of the education ministry and it remained part of that ministry until 2010.

Its board of governors has been incomplete since administrative control of the foundation was placed under another division in 2010, because the NBF Act states that the education minister will be the chairman of the board and the education secretary will be a member.

Education was devolved to the provinces by the 18th Amendment. A Ministry of Federal Education was later created, which mainly looks after the affairs of Islamabad-based institutions and the Higher Education Commission, but the NBF has not been placed under it.

Sources said efforts are being made to amend the NBF Act so that the board can be formed.

According to the act, the 21-member board of governors has an important role to play in the affairs of the NBF. The act reads: “The management, overall control and supervision of the affairs of the foundation shall vest in a board of governors.”

While briefing the committee, NBF officials said that the foundation has provided books at subsidised rates and prints books for institutions affiliated with the Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education.

NBF Managing Director Dr Inamul Haq Javeid told the committee that the NBF has stalls at five railway stations but has not been able to acquire a place at international airports in the country despite its efforts to set up book stalls there.

The committee chair responded by directing the NBF to set up stalls at all railway stations and airports.

The committee also directed the foundation to hold exhibitions, conferences and other programmes in parliament, and to open outlets in Khuzdar, Zhob and Loralai.

Senator Kalsoom Parveen said during the meeting that a culture of book reading needs to be promoted in less developed parts of the country.

The NBF is an attached department of the National History and Literary Heritage Division. The committee was told that the division has an annual budget of just Rs1 billion.

Committee members said this budget was not enough, and said the budget should be increased to up to Rs3bn.

The committee also expressed concern that the NBF is on the list of departments that will be privatised in the future. It directed the government not to take any steps to privatise the NBF, which is an important national organisation.

Sources at the foundation said there is no immediate plan on the part of the government to privatise the NBF, but it is number 41 on the proposed list.

The committee was told earlier that as part of the government’s austerity drive, it is planning to merge the Urdu Science Board, Urdu Dictionary Board and National Language Promotion Department.

The committee rejected the proposal and said these organisations should not be merged with each other and should continue working independently.

The committee also directed that the Quran and historical books should be translated into all of the country’s regional languages.

Published in Dawn, May 31st, 2019