Expressing anger over non-constitution of National Book Foundation (NBF) board of governors since 2013, a parliamentary panel on Thursday directed the government to reconstitute the board within six months. The Senate Functional Committee on Problems of Less Development Areas which met here with Senator Usman Khan Kakar in the chair, issued instructions to the ministry officials to devise proper rules of NBF and fill the vacant posts in the ministry within three months.
The panel recommended to expand budget of the ministry from Rs 1 billion to Rs 3 billion per annum as it was running 12 institutions and carrying out critical national duty of translating national and global languages books in the Urdu language. The foundation was also directed to establish bookstall in the Parliament House, provincial assemblies and on every airport of the country to encourage book reading trend among the masses.
While expressing his concerns, Kakar said that the NBF should focus on the less developed areas of the country, adding that those people really needed books and they were eager to opt book reading. He regretted that the NBF has only one books outlet in Balochistan. He directed the ministry to set up more outlets in the main cities of the province, especially in districts Zhob, Loralai and Khuzdar.
The chairman of the committee lauded the NBF for maintaining huge membership of 27,000 readers and providing 50 percent discount on books. He also directed to expand the membership to 10 million. He also suggested the use of media for publicity of the membership programme for inculcating awareness among the youth.
Kakar further said that the NBF should launch more mobile libraries in less developed areas across the country and reach schools, colleges to involve more students in such healthy activities. Senator Samina Saeed suggested of establishing book clubs to promote book reading, saying that a flourishing reading culture not only reflected a positive and healthy society rather also the most effective platform and weapon to eliminate dark clouds of ignorance, illiteracy and aware the masses and educate them to discriminate between right and wrong.
"Unfortunately in our society the tendency and appetite for reading is gradually dying and this lamentable situation is not only drastically affecting the habits, behaviours and notions of the people but society as a whole," she maintained. She urged that the NBF and officials to play a vital role for restoration of book reading culture.
Senator Kalsoom Parven said that the people of less developed areas required more books, adding "we should create a good environment to educate youth through book reading." She said that the government departments should provide libraries and reading rooms in different communities and at local level. The secretary of Ministry of National History and Literary Heritage informed the committee that the ministry in collaboration with NBF had conducted 500 exhibitions across the country in one year.
The secretary also invited the committee to visit the ministry and NBF headquarters. He said, "We have planned to open six outlets in the various areas of the country especially in Gilgit-Baltistan, Balochistan and Azad Jammu & Kashmir but the plan has not been completed due to funding issues." The managing director of National Book Foundation told the committee that he had already appealed to the provincial governments for cooperation but they had not supported our initiative of mobile bookshops.
Comments
Comments are closed.