KARACHI: The 18th Karachi International Book Fair (KIBF), organised by the Pakistan Publishers and Booksellers Association (PPBA), concluded at the Expo Centre Karachi on Monday, marking the end of a five-day festival that drew more than 500,000 Karachiites from various walks of life.

Long queues of visitors were witnessed on the premises of the Expo Centre on all the five days as men, women and children patiently waited for their turn to go inside the three halls where scores of stalls were set up.

Talking to Dawn at the venue on Monday, Sajid Fazli, organiser of a stall with a diverse collection of Urdu novels, expressed his satisfaction. He said the book fair had been more successful than the previous ones due to an increased public participation.

He said that the readers mostly visited a book fair to buy books on discounted prices. “It has been seen that there isn’t a good variety but the books are definitely cheaper,” he said, adding that due this reason, most organisers brought books that could easily be sold.

Organisers plan to take event to other cities of the country; say over 0.5m people attended book fair

A group of young boys, two of whom were carrying books they had bought in their hands, was in a lively mood. One of them, Muaviyah, shared that he and his friends had bought some Islamic books, which they had got on discounted prices.

Another visitor, who had come with his family and bought short story books for his children, said the book fair had been improving each year.

Most visitors were of the view that book fairs promoted a culture of reading because those who did not read a book before, may start reading after seeing such events and activities.

According to a press release issued by the PPBA, books were sold at a low price during the event, which was attended by students, educationists, women and children, political and religious leaders and diplomats.

During the book fair, for the first time in Pakistan, a table calendar for visually impaired persons and a hand-made Formula One sports car were introduced, it said, adding that a Palestine board game was also introduced to educate children about Palestinian cities and wars, besides various competitions based on practical activities and academic seminars that were conducted for the interest of students, and more than a dozen books were launched.

KIBF convener Waqar Mateen said that all the previous records of participation in this book fair had been broken.

He added that he was planning to take this book fair to other cities.

Among those who visited the 18th KIBF included caretaker information minister Ahmed Shah, Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan convener Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, former federal minister Aminul Haq, former education minister Syed Sardar Shah, Khush Bakht Shujaat, Nasreen Jalil, Jamaat-i-Islami-Karachi chief Hafiz Naeemur Rehman, Mairaj Ul Huda Siddiqui, Aamir Chishti, Dr Hilal Naqvi, Ameena Saiyid and other literary, social and political personalities.

Published in Dawn, December 19th, 2023