KARACHI: The five-day 18th Karachi International Book Fair (KIBF) organised by the Pakistan Publishers and Booksellers Association (PPBA) kicked off at Expo Centre on Thursday afternoon.

A big number of readers had poured into the three halls of the venue where publishers, including international exhibitors, had set up stalls.

The material, as always, ranged from religious books to works of literature and from biographies to self-help paper-packs.

It was heartening to see that a majority of the visitors were youngsters. One of them was Amna, who lives in Malaysia and was at Hall No. 3 with her aunt Afra. They were at the comics section, but Afra had already bought classics such as Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte for her niece.

Caretaker CM Baqar inaugurates five-day annual event

This writer overheard a bunch of youngsters thumbing through novels one of whom remarked, “Not all books are to be read, some are bought for possession.”

Interestingly, screenplays of a handful of successful Hollywood films were also available at the fair. They included Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs and Paul Thomas Anderson’s Boogie Nights.

Baqar calls for reducing duty on paper

Caretaker Sindh Chief Minister retired Justice Maqbool Baqar, who formally inaugurated the fair, said he wasn’t aware that he was supposed to speak on the occasion. He congratulated the organisers for their effort.

He observed the habit of reading books has been declining over time due to several factors, including the lack of development of reading habits among children, the rising cost of books, and the excessive use of mobile phones, which has diverted readers’ attention.

“The importance of reading books for society is known to all. Books make us aware and help us progress. Such efforts [like the fair] will develop people’s interest in reading,” he added.

The chief minister said he felt happy to see children at the event. “I understand the problem of pricey books. Efforts should be made to lessen the duty on paper,” he said.

He promised that he would do whatever he could to lower the duty on paper because it’s a federal government subject. “But the Sindh government will do whatever it can,” he assured.

In his welcome address, PPBA chairman Aziz Khalid said the fair started as an annual event in 2005 and helped project Pakistan’s soft image across the world. It couldn’t be held only once due to the pandemic. Its aim is to promote book culture in Pakistan. In that regard, private schools have made their substantial contribution by coming up with libraries, he added.

“We’re a poor country. Not everyone in villages has access to computers, which is why books assume a great deal of importance,” he said, adding that it felt good that schoolchildren opened the fair in the morning of the opening day and briefly talked about the government’s import policy which was a cause for concern in terms of the price of paper.

‘We are building housing societies on our food baskets’

In his keynote address, Senator Faisal Subzwari referred to the big number of children at the venue and recited two lines from a Zamir Jaffrey poem:

Shoq se nur-i-nazar, lakht-i-jigar paida karo

Zalimo thori si gandum bhi magar paida karo

[Bring children into this world, the apple of your eye, for sure

But please try and produce a bit of wheat, too]

Senator Subzwari pointed out that we are producing children but building housing societies on our food baskets. “This cannot work.”

He argued that the kind of decision making we see [at the top level] can be related to books. “If the Pakistani state decided to indoctrinate minds through syllabuses, speeches and the state-owned media, then you’ll get a certain kind of mindset. It’s the story of the last 50 years, hasn’t happened today. We are reaping what we had sowed. We were standing at a certain point when the [Army Public School] tragedy of Dec 16, 2014 took place, and look at what happened in Dera Ismail Khan yesterday. The problem is that it keeps happening. The problem is that the people who have put the Pakistani state in that direction are here.”

He said it’s estimated that 94 per cent of people in Pakistan don’t read anything other than textbooks and highlighted the importance of reading a wide range of books. He praised all those who helped arrange the book fair and disagreed with Mr Khalid on one count.

He was of the view to go for import substitution and establish more paper factories. “Today, the quality [of paper] is not up to scratch, tomorrow it will be better.”

Published in Dawn, December 15th, 2023