- Mamnoon inaugurates NBF-backed four-day national book festival
- Over 29 bookstalls, including foreigners, set up by 110 publishers
ISLAMABAD: President Mamnoon Hussain on Friday called for translating books on health, medicine, engineering, sciences and arts in the Urdu language to encourage and instill amongst the people the habit of reading.
Addressing the inauguration of the annual National Book Festival here at the Pak-China Friendship Centre, he said that a lot many bright students of Pakistan could not make it up to the top in education, only because the mode of teaching was not in the Urdu language.
Today, there were a number of universities and institutes of higher studies that were conducting research and development besides imparting quality education in all areas, he said, adding that the impact and reach of these organisations could increase significantly if their mode of education was in the national language.
WELFARE OF WRITERS: Appreciating the holding of the book exhibition, organised by the National Book Foundation (NBF), President Mamnoon said that the endeavour to inculcate the habit of reading. He asked the National Book Foundation to focus on welfare of the writers and publishers and served as an example for others.
He was optimist that the ambitious writers, scholars, scientists and researchers would be encouraged by the Book Foundation. He said that the human minds were fertile enough to absorb huge amounts of information and said if they were fed positive information, they turn out to be better human beings who served the humanity and made the society a better place to live.
In a world full of chaos, confusion, lawlessness and uncertainty, there was a need to generate positivity through good literary works, stimulate minds and encourage more learning, the president said. The National Book Foundation had come a long way since its inception and was playing its part in propagating the habit of book reading, he said.
EXHIBITION OF FOREIGN BOOKS: He said that the Book Foundation was serving the nation with a missionary zeal by extending support to the publishers and writers in bringing to the market books on new subjects and raising knowledge base of the common man. He said that the inclusion of books from China, Iran and Turkey was a welcome sign and would help the people get a better understanding of these brotherly countries.
Earlier, the president inaugurated the four-day book festival and went around the exhibition in which over 29 bookstalls have been set up by 110 private publishers. The books on literature, science, technology, current affairs, history, philosophy, travelogue, religion have been put on display.
