KARACHI: At a symposium on promotion of book culture, Ismail Saad, vice-chancellor of Hamdard University, advised the parents to give more attention to children and create in them interest and love for books. Teachers can also guide their students in selection of useful reading material. Love for books attained in the formative years will have a lasting effect on the minds of the children, he maintained.

Pirzada Qasim said the lack of demand and also interest in books were caused due to material poverty of the middle class. “The looming threat of war on our borders and consequently the rising cost of living has sidelined the middle class to the periphery, nearing the poverty line,” he said, and termed it a very disturbing situation.

The world has seen the rise of economists, scientists, intellectuals, researchers in various fields and authors from the middle class and if this class was eliminated, then it will darken the future of humanity, Pirzada Qasim concluded with a melancholy note.

Mobin Mirza had an entirely different view when he said that the unchecked production of substandard ‘literature’ had greatly caused damage to book culture and also to good taste among readers. Kutub melas should provide standard books, modestly priced, but production of poor reading stuff will in no way help and guide the reader, he observed.

Safoora Khairi recalled the mohalla libraries of the yore which provided books at the lowest cost and almost at our doorsteps. With the tide of time those libraries were washed away and society became poorer by losing them.

Aqeel Abbas Jafry said books should be modestly priced and paper-back publications should be reintroduced, which will greatly help curtail cost of production.

The programme was hosted by Welcome Book Port at Urdu Bazaar. Aniq Ahmad did the compering while Qaiser Zaidi presented vote of thanks.—HA