MARDAN: Mardan Commissioner Yousaf Rahim has said that a number of activities are being held from the platform of Reading Club to revive the habit of book reading among students.

He was addressing a special function organised by the Reading Club at his office to distribute cash prizes among the position holders at the spelling bee competitions held the other day.

The additional commissioner, Naeem Akhtar, the additional deputy commissioner, Engineer Shahzeb, the focal person for Reading Club and assistant commissioner, Ayesha Tahir, AAC Khola Haqdar, students, teachers and parents participated in the ceremony.

The commissioner said that there were more than 37,000 books on various topics in Mardan Public Library. He said that new books on modern sciences and arts were being added to the library while efforts were under way to keep the public libraries of Mardan and Swabi open for readers for expanded hours.

He said that in order to further expand the activities of Reading Club, work was also under way to develop it on an institutional basis.

The commissioner said that in the first phase reading clubs were organised in five schools each for boys and girls schools in Mardan.

He said that soon more schools in urban and rural areas would follow suit so that in that age of social media and mobile phones the connection between students and books could be restored.

Published in Dawn, July 27th, 2023