ISLAMABAD: The federal capital will have its first book museum soon. The ‘National Book Museum’ will be built in the premises of the NBF, NBF Managing-Director Mazharul Islam announced at the second National Book Day function.
It will be the first of its kind in the country, where first and original manuscripts of rare books will be placed. “This will be a living museum which will preserve th eevolution of book production,” Islam said, who himself is an internationally acclaimed short-story writer.
At present, he said, readers and researchers are facing a great deal of difficulty to find the original version of the books while the second and third versions of books are sketchy and inauthentic.
“It is difficult to even find the original manuscript of the great romantic epic ‘Heer’ by Waris Shah”, he said. In later editions, many verses were added to the original text, which cannot be attributed to Shah.
He thanked the law minister for his support in restoring the autonomous status of NBF. The credit goes to Senators Chandio and Jahangir Badr for playing vital roles in restoring NBF’s identity and saving it from merger with National Language Authority,” he said.
“Now we have been placed under the Cabinet Division in direct supervision of the prime minister. Cabinet Secretary Nargis Sethi is also a book lover and passionately promotes reading habits in the country. She has assured full support to the NBF for establishing the book museum and other related projects.”
Published in The Express Tribune, April 23rd, 2011.
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