7th Karachi International Book Fair at Expo Centre, Karachi -- Book Lovers Showed Great Interest in 5-Day Event

KARACHI, Pakistan (Dec. 19) – More than 100,000 people swarmed into the 7th Karachi International Book Fair at the Karachi Expo Centre on Sunday. The 5-day book fair is being organized by the Pakistan Publishers and Book Sellers Association from December 16 to 20, 2011.

7th Karachi International Book Fair at Expo Centre, Karachi

The third day of the 5-day book fair was unbelievably crowded by the book-lover people of Karachi, said PPBA Chairman Aziz Khalid. Despite a weekly holiday, the roads around the venue of Expo Centre were jammed due to the huge traffic, while the parking lot of the venue was also packed to its full capacity. He said that the citizens had taken an advantage of Sunday and participated in the fare, showing their passion and love for books.

He said, “We are thankful to people of the metropolis who have given great response to the international event and proved that they are real lover of books.” In the event, Sindh Information Minister Shazia Mari, Matric Board Chairman Anzar Hussain Zaidi also participated. The information minister also launched a book on Habib Jalib, written by Mujahid Barelvi.

Publishers from America, India, Iran, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Turkey and England are participating in this exhibition at Expo Centre’s hall No. 1, 2 and 3. Around 290 stalls have been set up there. However, Readings Group - a big books’ publisher and seller in Pakistan - has displayed more than 100,000 books on general topics in the fair.

Chairman Readings Group Rana Saeed said, “We have set up the largest book display here with 30 stalls. Readings have a large variety of books in English language, while Readings’ publications are in both English and Urdu languages. We also have imported-books at a nominal price. The largest books’ display covers nearly all topics, such as natural sciences, physical sciences, social sciences, literature, philosophy, poetry, sports, journalism, history, astronomy, geology.”

Talking about the vision of the Readings Group, he said, “We have introduced a new trend of selling and publishing books in the country by starting our journey from Lahore.