THIS is with reference to the letter ‘Budget proposal of a different kind’ (June 10). I find myself in absolute agreement with the proposal put forward regarding the government’s responsibility of making available reading material at affordable cost to the book-lovers, and in order to encourage reading habit among those who are reluctant to pick up a book anyway, but find the exorbitant prices as a wonderful excuse to move on to something else, like, say, having a pizza, for half that much money.

I am glad that the writer also touched upon the matter of newsprint prices that have left the newspapers with a rather famished look, feel and touch about them.

As someone who has been addicted to this newspaper for well over half-a-century, I feel hurt and frustrated to find ‘local’ and ‘national’ stories getting ‘continued’ on pages marked ‘International’. Apparently, the newspaper fails to find any place to carry those ‘continuations’ because of its reduced, almost ‘thinned-out’, volume.

Despite the price hike in general and my own diminishing resources, I have so far been unable to get out of my ‘addiction’, but I do wonder how long would I be able to carry on with this. I hope that the government does hear the plea of the letter quoted above, and, in turn, the newspapers would get back to their former selves. It would be a sad day when people like me would find it impossible to justify the expense in their domestic budgets.

Dr Syed Shah Talha Iqbal
Karachi

Published in Dawn, June 13th, 2021