KARACHI, April 23: The Department of Library and Information Sciences, University of Karachi, organized a walk from the KU’s Silver Jubilee Gate to the department building on Monday to celebrate the World Book and Copyright Day.

A sizable number of students and teachers participated in the procession with banners inscribed with slogans calling for enhanced reading habit.

When the procession reached the Administration Block, KU Vice-Chancellor Dr Pirzada Qasim Raza Siddiqui and several other senior academicians joined in. The rally culminated at the Department of Library and Information Sciences.

The department also organized a seminar where Dr Jaffar Ahmed, Director of the Pakistan Studies Centre, shared his views with the participants on how reading habit and friendship with books helped him illuminate his intellect prowess. “I cannot imagine a life without reading books,” he said.

Prof Malahat Kaleem Sherwani, chairperson of the department, shared the joy of reading books with the students and promised that soon a collection of non-professional books would be developed for the recreational reading.

The faculties and students of other departments also participated and shared their views with the audience.

April 23 is a symbolic date for world literature for on this day in 1616, Cervantes, Shakespeare and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega all breathed their last. It is also the date of birth or death of other prominent authors such as Maurice Druon, Haldor K. Laxness, Vladimir Nabokov, Josep Pla and Manuel Mejía Vallejo.

It was a natural choice for Unesco's General Conference, held in Paris in 1995, to pay a world-wide tribute to books and authors on this date, encouraging everyone, and in particular young people, to discover the pleasure of reading and gain a renewed respect for the irreplaceable contributions of those who have furthered the social and cultural progress of humanity.

In this respect, UNESCO created both the World Book and Copyright Day and the Unesco Prize for Children’s and Young People’s Literature in the Service of Tolerance.