These pages are called Books&Authors (B&A) to showcase new books through their reviews. B&A presents an analysis and commentary also, through essays and columns, on both new and old books and new and old ideas. These pages are like a broad church, where a wide range of issues and concerns are discussed — from pure aesthetics to theoretical narratives that shape thoughts and emotions and impact readers.

There is a subtle discourse generated consistently on society, the polity, the economy and the overall human condition. Besides, the weaknesses and strengths of previous and current cultural and literary landscapes are deliberated upon by exploring a wide range of books, people and places. At the centre of the expansive debate B&A generates are authors from various disciplines, whose work is both celebrated and critiqued. Those who fill these pages are either journalists or avid readers who occasionally write or are established academics or authors themselves.

But there is a question that started troubling me when I recalled my own experience in the education sector and sifted through some research studies to prepare talking points for a conference. This conference on youth agency in determining the learning and skills that matter was organised by the Pakistan Coalition for Education (PCE), a network of researchers and practitioners run by the Society for Advancement of Quality Education (SAQE). So, what happens after some years, when the number of Pakistanis left to read and to write for B&A become so small that B&A or any platform like it becomes totally unviable?

There has been no scientific survey but both anecdotal and circumstantial evidence suggest that reading habits in our country are on a sharp decline. In a country of 250 million, the print run of the first edition of a book published, in any discipline, averages only 600 copies. In many cases, it is even less, but then there are some known or popular writers who sell a little more.

Both anecdotal and circumstantial evidence suggest that reading habits in our country are on a sharp decline. In a country of 250 million, the print run of the first edition of a book published, in any discipline, averages only 600 copies. In many cases, it is even less, but then there are some known or popular writers who sell a little more.

When it comes to the print media, the era of monthly and weekly newsmagazines is over, tabloids are almost gone and the circulation of broadsheets has declined. Radio and television have the technological advantage for promoting their content through the ever-expanding social media, but serious content and knowledge products offered are few and far between. Some may challenge this assertion and tell us that web portals and online media have replaced newspapers and magazines. That may well be true but the questions regarding the quality of content and the quality of readership in new forms of media dominated by a new set of people still remain unanswered.

One may argue that there was no mass-printing just about 500 years ago and those who read used handwritten manuscripts. But then there was little aspiration for universal education either. I fully recognise that the medium for reading and writing is changing again for a part of humanity and may have changed completely even now for the rest of humanity. B&A may also have more readers online than those who read it in the printed newspaper.

However, the question in Pakistan is not the medium, whether it is electronic devices — from a smart phone to digital book banks like Kindle — or whether it is books and journals printed on paper. The challenge is the habit of reading, plain simple reading. The preferences in reading, in terms of the choice of subject and whether it is exercised for pure acquisition of knowledge or only for gainful employment, come later.

Another argument that we get to hear from those who are paid to paint a rosy picture of Pakistan and are concerned more about the so-called positive image abroad than worrying about how to fix what is seriously wrong within the country, is that, even in the most literate and economically advanced societies, not everyone reads. Again, that too is true. However, not only in the developed countries but in many developing countries as well, a critical scholarly mass is gathered that leads to the intellectual, social and economic growth of these countries. That is done by prioritising education and cultivating the habit of reading among young people.

Education and skill-building are the backbone of any development — whether it is about producing thought-leaders, knowledge-workers and productive labour or generating social change and economic growth. Although we know there are many schemes, pilots, initiatives and programmes led by the government, along with tiny islands of good practice created by the private sector and civil society, these touch only the tip of the iceberg of the problem facing Pakistan.

Even if there are traces of political will among some within the policy-makers, those who hegemonise financial resources have never seen education as a priority. Pakistan is at the bottom of countries with comparable income in terms of allocating resources for education. It is alarming that more than 26 million children of schoolgoing age remain out of school. The predicament of education is compounded by chronic malnutrition, causing stunting in about 40 per cent of Pakistani children under the age of five. Besides its access, the quality of the education being imparted and the resultant learning achievements for the overwhelming majority remain dismal.

I wonder how many will be able to read, reflect and write — on any subject of their choice — in a future Pakistan.

The writer is a poet and essayist. His latest collections of verse are Hairaa’n Sar-i-Bazaar and No Fortunes to Tell

Published in Dawn, Books & Authors, August 16th, 2026