ISLAMABAD: A 10-point agenda is being pursued to promote book reading culture for common benefit of younger generation and publishers working across the country, Minister for Education and Professional Training Shafqat Mahmood said on Tuesday.
The plan would not only help revive the book reading culture in the country but also resolve the financial issues of publishers, the minister said during a special meeting arranged by the National Book Foundation.
The meeting was attended by a large number of publishers and book sellers from Lahore who came to discuss the issues being faced by private book publishing industry in the country, said a press release issued here .
Under the agenda, he said the government was planning to mark next year as ‘Book Year’ and formulating a policy that would help promote the culture of gifting books at governmental level.
Shafqat said the plan was also aimed at creating a mechanism to allow customers to buy the books from publishers directly and increase the representation of Pakistani publishers in overseas book festivals.
He said the efforts would also be made to compel educational institutions to ensure purchasing of new books other than syllabus after every three months. Besides,a book festival in connection with Iqbal’s day would also be arranged as per the agenda.
The minister said the strategy was also aimed to publish curricular books in collaboration with the Higher Education Commission.
Secretary National History and Literary Heritage Divison Nadeem Shafiq Malik assured the publishers that such consultative meetings would be arranged in the future to discuss their issues and review the progress for resolving them.
The government would soon revise the national book policy to protect the rights of publishers in the country.
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