ACCORDING to a report, Pakistan does not feature on Unesco’s index of countries whose contemporary literature in indigenous languages is documented by the UN body annually. Which is not to say that no mentionable literature is produced by this multilingual nation of 180 million. Far from it. The problem lies in the steady decline of reading habits over the years. Seldom does a book appear today in Urdu, arguably the most widely read language in Pakistan, with a count exceeding 500 copies. Indeed, publishers say they are often hard-pressed to sell even that many copies. This was not true for writers and poets from preceding generations of scribes whose works continue to run into several editions even today. The contemporary Urdu short story has a considerable following but such stories mostly appear in literary journals and seldom as individual or collective anthologies. Poetry fares a bit better; the novel, the mainstay of fiction in most modern languages, has traditionally been a weak genre in Urdu prose, which is still young at 150-something.

However, literature produced in Sindhi, a much older language in its written form, is thriving when compared to Urdu, Pushto, Balochi or Punjabi. As for the handful of Pakistanis now writing fiction in English for a global readership, and some also winning laurels, it is a healthy development all considered. But the fact remains that despite our steadily mounting numbers, the reading public in Pakistan has shrunk over the years. This calls for introspection, especially in the education sector which does not figure prominently in our scheme of national priorities. Much less emphasis is placed on the quality of education that is overlaid with ideology and rhetoric. Textbooks will have to make more room for creative writing, thinking and, eventually, fresh creative writing that will be born of this process.