National Book Foundation (NBF) on its annual book fair has displayed nearly one million books in different cities of all the provinces. An official of the organisation, Naeem Tariq, after an informal opening of the exhibition told Business Recorder on Friday that the exhibition was aimed at developing reading habits among citizens.
In addition to the Headquarter in Islamabad, the exhibition has also been arranged at regional offices in Abbotabad, Bahawalpur, Bannu, D.I Khan, Faisalabad, Hyderabad, Jamshoro, Jacobabad, Karachi, Kohat, Lahore, Larkana, Nawab Shah, Multan, Peshawar, Sukkur, Wah and Quetta.
Tariq said that a total of about one million books on almost every subject had been kept on display to encourage students to purchase them at discount rates varying from 30 to 15 percent. He added that this was in addition to text books of Class 1 to 12.
Literary books of fiction, novels, memoirs and poetry are among the books placed in the exhibition, which includes, President Prevez Musharraf's book 'In the Line of Fire', which still continues to hold public appeal and is among the top 10 best selling books.
Tariq said that this year, NBF published about 100 books, including some on accounting, weirs and barrages, and a book on cytology, to name a few. The latest publication on Urdu Haiku was released in the market on Thursday, he disclosed.