KARACHI, Nov 30: Spread over five days and three halls of the city’s Expo Centre, the Third Karachi International Book Fair kicked off on Friday to give the metropolis’s bibliophiles a chance to browse through publications from different parts of the world, as out of the total 220 stalls that have been set up at the exhibition, 48 belong to foreign publishers and booksellers, the majority of them Indian.
The fair features a cornucopia of books ranging from different technical and scientific manuals to volumes on history, religion, the arts and encyclopaedias. Particularly outstanding are the books and educational material — both in Urdu and English – for children that are available at the fair, as perhaps the area of children’s books is one of the most neglected in the generally pitiful state of Pakistani education.
Apart from local exhibitors and representatives from India, German, British, American, Singaporean, Greek and Malaysian publishers and booksellers are also participating in the book fair.
The fair was formally inaugurated on Friday morning by the organisers, the Pakistan Publishers and Booksellers’ Association (PPBA). Though the Sindh governor was scheduled to be the chief guest, he had sent his regrets due to “pressing engagements” and was replaced as chief guest by former speaker of the Sindh Assembly Abdullah Hussain Haroon, who delivered the keynote address.
Mr Haroon regretted the fact that all education-related activities in the country did not get the attention they deserved. “The founders of this nation were greatly attached to education, whereas today health and education are extremely neglected. Even from the religious point of view, the first revelation from the Lord was ‘read’,” he said.
As an example of this neglect, he cited the case of the Shah Abdul Latif Library in Trans-Lyari, which had been set up during Z.A. Bhutto’s government. He claimed the library had been torn down and replaced by an office of the excise and taxation department. He also took a jibe at the Sindh governor for not attending the event. “If we had a Jinnah or a Gandhi alive today, they would not have avoided a function like this for anything,” he said, adding that “if we can spend a million rupees a day on the Prime Minister’s or President’s House, why can’t we give that to publishers to subsidise printing?”
Earlier, Iqbal Saleh Mohammad, convener of the book fair, urged the government and civil society to support the fair. He repeated the criticism of corporate sponsors he had made at a previous press conference, saying that the corporate sponsors’ attitude was “disturbing” considering the “noble cause”, which was to promote literacy.
While praising the National Book Foundation, which has helped organise the fair, he added that the electronic and print media could help the cause of literacy by lowering advertising rates, as he said government ads and those of music and entertainment concerns enjoyed lower tariffs.
During his vote of thanks, Aziz Khalid, chairman of the PPBA, said that the success of the previous fairs had proven that the people of Karachi were great lovers of books and claimed the present book fair was the biggest in the history of Pakistan. He urged the government to allow the duty-free import of good quality paper, especially for textbooks, to further the cause of education. He also announced that the next Karachi International Book Fair has been scheduled from Dec 26 to Dec 30, 2008.
Three senior people who contributed to publishing were given awards at the conclusion of the ceremony. Mirza Jamil, who came to the event, was recognized for his invention of the computerised Noori Nastaliq font, while posthumous awards were announced for Malik Noorani, who set up the Maktaba-i-Danyal and the Pakistan Law House, and Shaikh Shaukat Ali, a leading bookseller and publisher of Karachi’s Urdu Bazaar.
German Consul-General Hans-Joachim Kiderlen also attended the inauguration.
The book fair concludes on Dec 4. Timings are from 10am till 9pm, while entry is free.