KARACHI: The 16th Karachi International Book Fair, organised by the Pakistan Publishers and Booksellers Association (PPBA) in collaboration with the National Book Foundation (NBF) will be held from Dec 30 (tomorrow) to Jan 3, 2022.

Speaking at a press conference at a local hotel on Tuesday evening, chairman of the PPBA Aziz Khalid said the journey [of the exhibition] now spans 17 years. This year’s edition is called the 16th because last year the event could not take place due to the coronavirus pandemic.

137 booksellers with 315 bookstalls will participate in the annual event at Expo Centre

Giving out details of the programme, the convener of the fair, Waqar Matin, said it’s going to be held from Dec 30 to Jan 3 in Halls No: 1, 2 and 3 of Expo Centre.

He said the good thing about this year is that there are a big number of booksellers from Lahore taking part in the event. Then there are participants from Jhelum, Islamabad and Hyderabad.

The inauguration will take place on Dec 30 at 11.30am and Sindh Culture Minister Syed Sardar Ali Shah will formally open it. Writer Anwar Maqsood will be the main speaker.

Mr Matin said there will be 315 bookstalls at the fair and 137 booksellers. American and UK publishers, among other foreign publishers, will have their book displayed but they themselves can’t come to the fair because of the pandemic. Then there are aizazi stalls for institutions such as the Arts Council, the Sindh Textbook Board, the Sindhi Adabi Board and the Sindhi Language Authority etc.

Returning to the podium, Mr Khalid said when the exhibition first began, apart from the publishers and booksellers it was the media that supported it. At the time the organisers didn’t have many resources. At the first presser held 17 years back, the media was told that the entire effort of putting up the exhibition was being done under the umbrella of the association. It was to do with the collective benefit of the country, because in those days the situation in Pakistan was not good. No one was willing to visit us. It was the media that owned the KIBF.

“Through the fair we wanted to tell the world not to associate us with bad things. We also have a book reading culture. A big number of our people, mostly belonging to the middle class, stand in a queue in a disciplined way for a long time to step into Expo Centre [to buy books]. It was important to show that side of us to the world… and the media helped us do that,” he said.

Published in Dawn, December 29th, 2021