KARACHI: Amid the religious texts from different schools of thought and associated proselytising groups - which usually dominate the ongoing Karachi International Book Fair 2012 - foreign publishers were also attracting a fair bit of business.
The five-day event being held at the Expo Centre was teeming with Karachi’ites on its second day as book-enthusiasts browsed and bought textbooks, fiction fare and religious literature on Friday afternoon.
For Dubai’s Al Ghurair Printing and Publishing, it was the first time the publishing house was participating in a Karachi-based books event. “I looked at the market when I came here in September and decided we should participate,” Jay Singh of the publishing house told The Express Tribune. “The response has been very nice,” he said, adding that they hadn’t come across any issues with the organisers so far.
Al Ghurair has only received individual orders for textbooks so far, but is also marketing its Braille printing facility along with collection of Arabic and Urdu newspapers for distribution. “We have newspapers, diaries, mugs, textbooks - it’s a pretty big set up.”
Attaur Rehman, a marketing executive at Publishers Marketing Associates, however, found the response better in Lahore “as such events there are held under one roof and not split into three halls.”
Publishers Marketing Associates distributes books through a number of international publishers, including from India, Singapore, Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates. People crowded around the vibrant textbooks on sale by Sunrise Publishers, part of the same group.
Nasrullah, who has been distributing academic books by foreign publishers since 1984, said that business had been “so so” on Friday and the day before “since it was a half-day for most people.” Random House and Cengage Learning were among the publishing houses he acts as a distributor for.
As far as Indian books were concerned, he said there were two kinds - books authored by Indians and reprints. It is the reprints of books by foreign publishers that are most popular in Pakistan, and Indian authors were more popular for engineering texts.
Visitors at the fair seemed to be thoroughly enjoying the book haven. Some thought the variety of books has improved this year, as opined by Mrs Agha who came with her 11-year-old daughter Urooj Fatima.
‘Keep your cool: Follow the Rasool (SAW)’
One of the stalls set up at the Karachi Book Fair on Friday was by the earnest young men behind Hiba Magazine, which is run by a woman out of Khayaban-e-Bahria.
The stall offered learning toolkits for children as well as magazines for adults and children, and a collection of plaques, bumper stickers and badges emblazoned with slogans themed around religion. “Keep your cool: Follow the Rasool (SAW)” says one bumper sticker, while badges can be procured for Rs80 that proclaim that ‘Muslims are caring’ and ‘I do WHATEVER Allah tells me to.’
Published in The Express Tribune, December 8th, 2012.
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