Books for all: ‘Make Pakistan attractive to foreign publishers’

LIBF opens to a small crowd.

LAHORE:

The opening day of the 28th Lahore International Book Fair (LIBF) saw a modest turnout on Wednesday. The fair is hosting as many as 260 stalls at the Expo Centre.

The LIBF was held in Hall I, Hall II was occupied by another event. Previously, both halls had been occupied by the book fair. Last year, the book fair had hosted nearly 300 stalls. LIBF chairman Zubair Saeed said foreign publishers, including Indian publishers, had shown interest in participating but visa issues had delayed them.

The fair was meant to be inaugurated by Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, but opened without him. Few people attended in the morning, but crowds grew later in the day. Attendance remained less than previous years.

Book shops and publishers including Readings, Paramount Books, Ferozsons Private Limited, Liberty Books, Oxford University Press, Vanguard Books, Pearson Education India, Dar-ul-Salam and Sang-i-Meel participated in the annual book fair. Discounts on books, reference materials and dictionaries were available at various stalls.

Several other organisations had also set up stalls to distribute reading material regarding their work, such as Al-Huda, Iqbal Academy Pakistan, Maulana Zafar Ali Khan Trust, and government institutions including the Punjab Textbook Board and The Urban Unit.

The Turkish publication house Harmony Publications has set up a stall at LIBF for the last few years. The publishing house’s director, Yakup ON, said the Pakistani market still lacked what was needed to attract foreign publishers.

“The market in Pakistan for Turkish publishers is not very ripe, but there is potential”, he said. Harmony Publications has been working in Pakistan since 2007 and has brought more than 130 books in English for children, and on culture and Islam.

ON also said “The fair was postponed thrice…I am sure for genuine reasons, but things like these discourage foreign participation”. A similar concern was expressed by the LIBF Trust Chairman Saeed, who said the fair had been postponed due to the Punjab Youth Festival.

“How can love for reading be claimed in a society where every person is glued to television or a mobile phone?” asked Noor Muhammad, who was assisting Multiline Books. He added that the fair attracted more people over the weekend. He said books from Indian publishers were highly sought after, as they offered quality at lower prices. “You have to engage with and bring in foreign publishers…especially for textbooks”, Muhammad said.

“There should be no fear of foreign books and knowledge. Let us learn from them instead of shying away from them”, said Archives and Libraries Secretary Orya Maqbool Jan.

He said that hate content should not be promoted or allowed, but the local market should be more receptive to bringing in foreign books.

He also stressed the need to translate foreign books into local languages. “Books were abandoned in this country before the advent of information technology. Teachers and institutions have tunnel vision, where reading beyond the curriculum is considered wrong”, he said.

The book fair will open from 10:30am and close at 10pm at the Expo Centre. It will end on March 2.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 27^th, 2014.