‘Abolish tax on paper to promote education’

Federal and provincial taxes and levies on paper should be abolished, or at least reduced to make books and subsequently education more accessible to the people Sindh Education Minister Syed Sardar Ali Shah said on Thursday.

Speaking at the opening of the five-day 16th Karachi International Book Fair Shah promised to write a letter to the federal government for tax exemption on paper. He also announced to present a resolution in the Sindh assembly to abolish tax on paper.

The provincial education minister said that most of want to become but end up doing something else. “I am an accidental engineer, accidental MPA and accidental minister. I wanted to become something else but became something else. I am a politician by profession but I am a poet by passion,” he sahred with the people.

The world has become digital, but the romance of turning a page while reading a book is a different feeling. Shah said that just like the book fair is organized in Karachi, similar book fairs would be held in Larkana, Hyderabad and other districts of Sindh.

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Former education minister Pir Mazhar-ul-Haq said in his address that his relationship with books is old as he had also been a journalist. "I try to attend the International Book Fair. Every year and I come with the children and buy the books of my choice.

International Book Fair Chairman Aziz Khalid said that due to the increase in taxes on imported paper, standard books have gone out of reach of middle-income group. “Education should not be taxed," Aziz said.

Renowned writer Fatima Hassan said that this book fair shows that neither literature nor the language is dying. "This is not the last century of literature and language," she said.

As many as 330 stalls of textbooks and non-textbooks have been set up where internationally renowned book publishers from Iran, India, Turkey, Singapore, China, Malaysia, United Kingdom and UAE are participating.

Writers, poets, social and political personalities who came to the exhibition welcomed the book fair and said that such exhibition would be very helpful in improving the image of Karachi.

Children from various schools also attended the book fair, reading and buying books of their choice.

Renowned writer and artist Anwar Maqsood and writer Fatima Hassan were also guests at the inauguration ceremony while MQM leader Haider Abbas Rizvi, writer Shahida Hassan, Arts Council Pakistan, Karachi President Ahmed Shah, Director of Private Institution Director General Mansoob Hussain Siddiqui, Adib Mahmood Sham and a large number of diplomats, delegates, scholars, and journalists also participated.