Sindh

Annual event: Five-day international book fair starts tomorrow

The organisers hope to put up over 330 stalls in Expo Centre's three halls.

Photo: AYESHA SALEEM/Our Correspondent December 16, 2014

KARACHI: The annual book fair in the city is all set to kick off from Thursday with over 330 stalls being set up at Karachi Expo Centre.

The 10th Karachi International Book Fair is being organised in association with The Pakistan Publishers and Booksellers Association. The five-day event will end on December 22.

At a press conference held at the Movenpick hotel on Tuesday, Elite Publishers convenor Owais Jamil said that the fair will be attended by 18 international exhibitors and up to 110 publishers from other parts of Pakistan.

The inauguration ceremony for the book fair will be held on December 19 by Syed Khurshid Ahmed Shah, the leader of opposition, and senior minister Nisar Ahmed Khuhro.

"This time we are expecting over 400,000 visitors," said Urdu Academy Sindh central committee chairperson Aziz Khalid. "Apart from students and families, we have invited schools and colleges to schedule a visit to this annual book fair."

According to Jamil, the stalls at last year's fair were offering discounts of up to 80 per cent. "We urge the book sellers to provide good cut-offs to the visitors, but it is guaranteed that the prices of books at the fair will be 25 per cent less than market prices," he claimed.

Apart from books, the organisers have also arranged a number of fun and educational activities for students and families. The activity lounge will be hosting a comic mushaira. Some new writers will also be launching their books.

"We have also invited the National Book Trust of India for their published works in Sindhi, in particular," said Khalid. "Last year, the group was able to sell all of them in one day."

A similar annual fair will be held in Lahore in February. "There is a huge hunger for books in Pakistan and we hope that, in the future, the fair is able to extend to all six halls of the Expo Centre," said Khalid.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 17^th, 2014.