Punjab Study

Lahore:February 04: Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif inaugurated 26th Lahore International Book Fair (LIBF) 2012 at Expo Centre, Johar Town, on Friday. Speaking on the occasion, he also announced a grant of Rs2 million for International Book Fair Trust.

Shahbaz said book reading had been his passion from childhood and he had learnt many foreign languages and read a number of books in those languages. He said the theme of the International Book Fair “Peace for All, Education for All” had to be spread to every corner of the country. He said intolerance in the society could be removed through promotion of education and awareness, adding that the Punjab government had taken measures for the uplift of education sector and promotion of quality education.

The chief minister said IT labs had been set up in more than 4,000 schools at a cost of Rs5 billion and children were benefiting from the project. He said the programme of distribution of laptops among talented students on merit had started from Rahimyar Khan and 110,000 computers would be given to students by the end of March. He said laptops would also be given to the talented students of other provinces as well as Azad Kashmir.

The CM said it would be success of the government even if only 10 percent students who received laptops became IT experts and gave a roadmap for development of agriculture, industries and other sectors as well as supremacy of justice and merit and elimination of corruption.

LIBF Trust Chairman Zubair Saeed said the purpose of the book fair was to promote the habit of book reading. He said 240 stalls had been set up in the book fair.

LIBF Trust Secretary and journalist Najam Sethi said the objective of holding the international book fair was to serve the people through provision of quality books at cheaper rates.

Later, the chief minister also visited various stalls at the book fair. The book fair features publishers and booksellers from across the country as well as the USA, UK, Singapore, Turkey, Germany and India.

A large number of people from different walks of life visited the book fair on the first day and showed interest in the books displayed by the publishers. Talking to The News, a number of visitors lauded the efforts of the organizers and said such events should be held on a regular basis.

A visitor, Arslan, said the event provided a great opportunity to explore the world of books and added that it was good to see a large number of books on various topics under one roof. Salman Gul, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of an online bookstore, www.786cart.com, said his organisation, launched in January this year, offered more than 100,000 English titles covering a variety of subjects. He termed the book fair a great event. Wajahat, a representative of a magazine, also termed the fair a great opportunity for visitors to buy books.

Farooq Mughal, executive assistant from Newsweek Pakistan, said the book fair received good response on the first day. Sheharyar, one representing the stall of a publishing house from New Delhi, India, said the stall offered a variety of books, including story books for children, novels and books on arts and crafts. The Punjab Textbook Board (PTB) also marked its 50th anniversary by organising various competitions such as speech, painting and essay writing at the fair.The news.