LAHORE, Feb 14: Governor Salman Taseer has pledged to play an active role in the promotion of events like book fairs to inculcate reading habits among people.

Speaking at the inauguration of the Lahore International Book Fair 2009 at the Fortress Stadium on Saturday, he called the event “a wonderful opportunity for book lovers to explore the world of knowledge.” He would like to see book exhibitions under one roof a permanent feature in the city.

After partition, he said, Lahore became the centre of literary activities and people like Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Dr Taseer and Hafeez Jallandhari would meet here at coffee houses and other such places. “I would like to see Lahore the same city as it was in those days,” he added.

In a passing reference to Basant while speaking to journalists, the governor commented: “Basant is the heart of cultural events in Punjab, which every Lahori wants to celebrate.”

Najam Sethi, editor of a national daily, requested the government to provide a two-kanal piece of land in Lahore for permanent exhibition of books.

He said once the government would provide land, a trade centre of books could be developed there with the help of the private sector.

The book fair, which has become an important event on Lahore’s calendar, had well over 200 stalls. Among the foreign book publishers and traders were known names from the USA, the UK, Switzerland and India.

LIBF chairman Zubair Saeed told reporters that this book fair would be beneficial for international publishing companies for being an opportunity to negotiate business with the local publishing houses. They would hopefully sign agreements for co-publishing, he added.

The Punjab Text Book Board had announced art competition for the students of classes I to 10 at the book fair. Mian Babur Hamid, LIBF coordinator, told Dawn that around 2,000 students had got themselves registered for the competition. He said a teacher training programme was also part of the book fair conducted by Afaq Publishers.

A variety of books was on display at discounts ranging between 33-50 per cent. The books were on subjects such as medical sciences, engineering, education, environmental sciences, commerce, technology, humanities and social sciences, agriculture, library sciences, law, CSS, PCS, nursing, fiction, art and architecture, psychology, computer sciences, Urdu and English literature. The book fair will conclude on Feb 18.