KARACHI: The 18th Karachi International Book Fair (KIBF) organised by the Pakistan Publishers and Booksellers Association (PPBA) will be held at Expo Centre from Dec 14 to Dec 18.

Speaking at a press conference at a local hotel on Monday evening, KIBF convener Waqar Mateen said caretaker Chief Minister Retired Justice Maqbool Baqar will inaugurate the event on Dec 14.

Provincial Information Minister Ahmed Shah will be the guest of honour, while writer Anwar Maqsood and politician Faisal Subzwari will be the keynote speakers, he added.

The convener said there will be 350 stalls in three halls at Expo Centre. Apart from more than 100 Pakistani publishers and booksellers, exhibitors from 17 other countries will participate in the event.

The opening ceremony will be held in Hall 4 at midday.

KIBF chairman Aziz Khalid praised the role which the media has played over the years to promote the fair, terming its cooperation as ‘family affair’.

He said in a time where there’s ‘depression’ and the new generation is also not ‘happy’, the event produces energy in people and enables them to have a sense of nation. He mentioned that atrocities committed against the population in Palestine, saying the people of Gaza are fighting against it.

Mr Khalid said books are important in spreading the cause of education and lamented there are no such policies in our country which can do that. He was of the view that the government is not ready to support on the issue of paper. Printing books has become an expensive exercise and the local paper does not meet international requirements, he argued. He requested as well as demanded that the government reduce the duty on paper.

Going down memory lane, he said that the fair started in 2005 to which the late historian Dr Hamida Khuhro and Indian High Commissioner Shivshankar Menon came.

Published in Dawn, December 12th, 2023