KARACHI: At a kutub mela held in Federal B Area, where a number of writers and poets discussed on Sunday the problems faced by writers, publishers and booksellers in the promotion of books and the publishing industry itself.

Ahmed Zainuddin, editor of quarterly Roshnai, introducing the subject, complained of the ever-rising cost of paper and also the apathy of the government towards periodicals and books. But poet Ahmed Navid explained the real cause. He deplored the overall decline of culture and the increasing distance between the literate man and books. Giving a brief survey of the socio-cultural developments during the past fifty years, a writer pointed out that the rate of literacy had declined, so had the number of reading public, and that of writers and poets. Analysts and researchers were also few. The universities, which used to be the hub of cultural and educational activities and healthy intellectual pursuits in the pasts, had turned into barren lands. Decay looked imminent, he said.

Another writer slightly differed and recalled the change in the shape of information technology and the electronic media. But the Western world far advanced in both ways was not lacking in the production of books and journals, another writer pointed out.

Publishers point of view was presented by the organizers of the kutub mela, Farid publishers, who had hired a marriage hall at a considerable expense for better display of all kinds of books - Urdu, English and also children’s literature. This mela, they informed the audience, was an annual feature, being held in the holy month of Ramazan for the past nine years. They complained that the government had not been providing any kind of support to run the business. Libraries which used to purchase book were now almost non-existent. In Punjab publishers in this respect were fortunate as they were being patronized by government bodies and official and school/college libraries.

A senior writer of children’s books, Mazher Yusufzai, and a young writer engaged since long in writing and translating books for children, Ibn Aas, were complaining of the apathy shown by senior writers and critics towards them and the overall indifferent attitude of society. Writers for children were taken as if belonging to an inferior breed, they complained.

Among those who participated int he dialogue included Arif Shafeeq, Saba Ikram, Akhlaq Ahmed, Anwer Shaoor, Prof Khawja Qutbuddin, Ayaz Khan and Dr Mohammed Mohsin.

Book were on sale till late in the evening. Jon Elia’s poetry collection Shayed was also there, though at present it is rarely available in bookshops. It was first published in 1990 and its eighth edition appeared in 1998. Poetry books were also in demand.— Hasan Abidi