KARACHI, May 6: The city’s premier book market, Urdu Bazaar, considered to be a paradise for booklovers and students community, is loosing attraction.

Shaped up in the early ‘50s, the oldest book market attracts thousands of people every day. Be it a search for textbooks or educational materials, maps or charts, copies or journals, Urdu classics or latest fiction and poetry collections, legally imported medical, engineering, electronics, computer books or piracy edition or photocopies, one is never disappointed as the shops have it for all groups of people.

After creation of Pakistan, the city among other things got the attention of book traders and publishers as well. Some of the individuals set up shops here and there, but it was for the first time that some cabins were installed along the Mission Road, near Dow Medical College, in 1950-51, in order to organize a centre for book trade, which were finally dismantled, recalled a senior man in the market.

After a few years, under the pressure of the martial law government, the cabins on the Mission Road were removed and shifted to an area near the KMC Stadium. The then government had also offered the book sellers some accommodation in the then municipal market, off Bunder Road, but the shopkeepers denied the offer as they did not find it suitable for their business.

Perhaps, it was in 1961 or 1962 when the shopkeepers agreed to shift their business to the municipal market, constructed over a nullah, off Bunder Road, said a young bookseller, quoting his father. Some 42 shops were established after bifurcating the existing big shops, which were later allotted to parties involved in book business on the Mission Road.

The new book market was named Urdu Bazaar, in a fashion with the already existing Urdu Bazaars in Lahore and India, which had been catering to the needs of the Urdu book readers.

Today, the retailers’ Urdu Bazaar is surviving with at least four wholesale markets: the tyre market, plastic market, buckram market and book and copy markets, which had been established in the nearby residential buildings.

Urdu Bazaar has turned into a big book market now. It is well known for its variety of stocks and round-the-year availability of textbooks and other supplementary books for students, while book shops established in residential areas, commercial complexes and educational institutions worked purposefully on a season basis for a few months as far as sale of textbooks is concerned, said a bookseller.

Prior to the establishment of the Bazaar, there were three book-points in the city, Juna Market for books, Boulton Market, and Saddar for newspapers and books, said Syed Ahsan Rizvi, an old resident and book trader at the Urdu Bazaar vicinity.

It was further said that since its beginning, Urdu Bazaar had been a choice of students as they got discount on the purchase of books as a routine business matter, while they were not required to visit more than once for want of books as the whole course was made available under one roof.

Now, with the establishment of mini-markets and seasonal sale of class books by school managements, things are deteriorating, said a shopkeeper. Moreover, improper supply of books by the textbook board and floating of costly imported books and local publishers could also be blamed for the decrease of visitors to the Bazaar.

Urdu Bazaar is also loosing attraction due to a massive road traffic, unchecked and increasing encroachment in its surroundings. In the evening, and particularly during the peak of the season, it becomes highly terrible for students and their parents to get in and out of the market.

The bazaar was extended and additional construction of shops were undertaken after 1992, when a bomb blast took place in the market. Today about 350 book shops of retailers and wholesalers are operative at the Bazaar and the adjacent areas, along Mohan Road, Temple Road, and Robson Road.

Encroachments by old book sellers and push-cart holders every here and there have defaced the area. Traffic noise and choking have become a regular feature which consume a lot of time and fuel of drivers, while on the other hand pedestrians had to suffer a lot, said a shopkeeper in the Bazaar and mentioned that even the shopkeepers were finding it hard to bring and park their vehicles near their business place.

Footpaths are almost vanished either due to illegal cabins or because of those doing a makeshift business. In addition to wholesale markets, there are government schools, colleges and hospitals as well and pedestrian visitors to all these places are forced to walk on the busy but congested road at their own risk, said area residents.

The President of Urdu Bazaar Welfare Association, Nasim Ahmed, said his association had been fighting against the illegal cabins and unchecked encroachments as these were harming the booksellers. We have also submitted a petition with the office of the provincial ombudsman on the issue of illegal erection of cabins and encroachments in the area, he informed.

An old shopkeeper said that when a number of shops were gutted by fire due to a bomb blast some ten years back, the dislocated shopkeepers had tried to hold their shops as temporary arrangements on footpaths, but were dislocated under the pretext that they could not do so as KMC and the Sindh government disallowed any construction or structures on footpath.

However, now the structures are everywhere, including on the footpaths, streets and roads in the vicinity, but no one is bothered, pointed out the shopkeeper.

The bazaar shopkeepers also blame the establishment of book- outlets at private schools and book-shops in different localities. The problems Urdu Bazaar shopkeepers are faced with are discouraging not only the book traders at the market but also the students who are missing the benefits of the bazaar, said the visitors and shopkeepers interviewed by this reporter.