KARACHI: It was heartening to see hundreds of schoolchildren having a good time, cheering and browsing books on the opening day of the five-day Karachi World Book Fair (KWBF) that began at Expo Centre on Thursday afternoon.

But it was Hall No 4 where the event, organised by the Pakistan Publishers and Booksellers Association (PPBA), was formally inaugurated and some thought-provoking speeches were delivered.

With a total of 329 stalls set up, publishers from 17 countries, including 140 from Pakistan are participating in the fair.

Speaking as the chief guest, Sindh Education Minister Syed Sardar Shah said he gets to visit many events but going to a book fair makes him the happiest. “A book is imperative for human society’s evolution.” The minister went down the history track, speaking about the first book that was published in the world. He then thanked China for giving us paper and Germany for coming up with the printing machine. “A book is not only a man’s best friend, but also his biggest leader.”

Mr Shah said he was recently in London for a conference at which it was said that AI (artificial intelligence) should be used for educational systems. “Our response was that if you introduced AI like that, books will vanish from a child’s life and his creative ability will be destroyed.”

Publishers from 17 countries participating in five-day show at Expo Centre; education minister calls on federal govt to reduce paper tax

He added, “We can’t let books die. If books die, our dreams will die, we will die.”

He said unjustified taxes imposed on paper are not only causing serious damage to the book publishing industry but are also rapidly affecting the culture of reading in society.

He urged the federal government to reduce taxes on book publishers so that more books can be printed and access to knowledge and information can be made easier and more affordable for the general public. He said that any reduction in paper tax would directly benefit the people.

Sardar Shah said that the Sindh government has introduced initiatives to promote reading at the school level and that book corners will be established in every school across Sindh to help keep children connected with books.

He assured the organisers that after Karachi, international book fairs would also be organised in Hyderabad, Sukkur, Larkana and Mirpurkhas with the full cooperation of the Sindh government.

Arts Council President Ahmed Shah delivered the keynote address. He started off by expressing his happiness at seeing a big number of schoolchildren at the fair. For the organisers, he assured that since they’re doing a positive job, the Arts Council would support their effort.

PPBA Chairman Kamran Noorani in his speech said parents should buy books for their children. He told the audience that recently after noticing that his collection of books had burgeoned, he donated seven or eight cartons to the Sir Shahnawaz Bhutto Library. Doing that, he chanced upon an old book. When he opened it, he read that his father had written ‘for my son Kamran’ on it; it was Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. He was just two years old at the time.

Apart from that, Mr Noorani said, schools should also encourage their students to read books.

KWBF convener Waqar Mateen, secretary of the National Book Foundation Murad Ali also spoke at the event.

The five-day book fair will continue from 10am to 9pm daily until Dec 22.

Published in Dawn, December 19th, 2025