Discount on books: NBF to open Readers’ Club soon

ISLAMABAD: The National Book Foundation (NBF) will open its Readers’ Club membership in a few weeks to encourage and promote book culture among the public. The Readers’ Club scheme allows registered members to purchase books of up to Rs5,000 with a 50 per cent discount from designated bookshops in Islamabad and Rawalpindi. The foundation issued more than 20,000 membership cards in fiscal year 2013-14, an NBF official said. He said the public has been asking the foundation to launch the scheme at the earliest this year. The scheme remained suspended for four years due to financial constraints before it was restored in November last year to promote reading habits. The scheme will be launched in all major cities. The Planning Commission has released Rs30 million for the scheme. Apart from Readers’ Club, the NBF is also running a number of programmes to encourage the youth to read books.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 15^th, 2014.