President Dr Arif Alvi inaugurates Karachi Festival of Books and Libraries, presents lifetime recognition shields
Chehra WebDesk
President Dr Arif Alvi inaugurates Karachi Festival of Books and Libraries, presents lifetime recognition shields
KARACHI: The President of Pakistan, Dr Arif Alvi, inaugurated the Karachi Festival of Books and Libraries (KFBL), the first-ever event of its kind to be held in Pakistan, in a graceful event here at the Sindh Governor House on Saturday. A large number of librarians, academics, scholars, authors and designers attended the one-hour inauguration and recognition ceremony of the KFBL, being produced by Jumbo Publishing with the collaboration of the English-Speaking Union of Pakistan while the technical assistance is being provided by the Karachi Library Association (KLA).
President Dr Arif Alvi, who was the chief guest in the ceremony, bestowed upon Lifetime Achievement Recognition mementoes to the famed quintet of Abdul Qadir Qureshi (Journalism), Iqbal Saleh Muhammad (Publishing and Bookselling), Syed Ahmed Naqvi (Librarianship), A G Khalid (Graphic Designing) and Ehsan Qureshi (Sports Authorship), besides presenting shields to Aziz Memon, Jahangir Moghul, Syed Khalid Mahmood and Khalid Mumtaz Ansari for in recognition of library activism.
The KLA founders, Prof Farheen Mahmood, Prof Shama Bano, Prof Bushra Roohi, Prof Syed Munawwar Ali, Prof Amir Subhani, Nasir Mustafa, Wajid Ali Chandio, Ali Asghar Dars, Rehana Sadiq, Farzana Zafar and Muhammad Younus Hashmi were received mementoes from the President of Pakistan for their overwhelming contributions to librarianship.
President Dr Arif Alci lauded the initiative of holding the KFBL around a time when the nation moved on to undertake new challenges in the age of digital technology and artificial intelligence.
“We needed such a mega-event, with focus on libraries, to bring people towards books. There’s no doubt about it that libraries symbolize the progress of civilization. Therefore, libraries need to be preserved, protected, promoted, developed, redeveloped and reshaped. As all of you know, there are multiple benefits of reading books which could be most conveniently done by visiting libraries,” he emphasized.
“The KFBL can help in filling this vacuum as they plan to make sustainable efforts in this direction. The creation of awareness about the libraries among the masses will enable a larger pool of people to utilize the facilities and the students and professionals in particular will get the opportunity to sharpen their skills by visiting the libraries,” he added.
The President talked about the much-needed efforts for digitalization of content in order to reach bigger audience and attract the younger generation, who were more inclined to read through their own gadgets.
Aziz Memon and Syed Khalid Mahmood, the co-founders of the KFBL, also spoke on the occasion alongwith Jahangir Moghul, Past District Governor of Rotary International, and Prof Farheen Mahmood, President, KLA.
The citations of the five recipients of Lifetime Achievement Recognition were also declared on the occasion. The career of Abdul Qadir Qureshi as a working journalist spanned well over half a century. He made the national news agency of the country, Associated Press of Pakistan (APP), proud by filing record number of stories. He is now heading a private news agency, Pakistan News and Features Services (PNFS) while he has been the Chief Editor of Jumbo Karachi Guide since its inception. He has done a commendable job by making Karachi’s first-ever comprehensive travel guide a real historic document.
Iqbal Saleh Muhammad was credited to have added enormous value to the profession of publishing and bookselling with his creativity, visionary approach and professional management. Paramount Books, established by his father as a small bookshop selling second-hand books in 1948, has become the market leaders under his dynamic leadership. His company has played a pivotal role in the educational development of Pakistan, gaining a reputation for excellence at home and abroad. Education and learning have remained very dear to his heart. He has endeavoured to cultivate a literate society where education is accessible to every individual.
A G Khalid has been hailed as the guru to the majority of the graphic designers in the present generation in Pakistan. Many of saplings planted by him have grown into gigantic trees now. Most of his own creative designs have stood the test of the times. He surely is the living legend of the communication, design and graphic industry. He’s acclaimed to be the first person to have gained command in technology in Pakistan and then he passed on the skills to his contemporaries and students. He founded the graphic department in some of the most prestigious media organizations to be regarded as the trend-setter in the world of arts and design.
Although Syed Ahmed Naqvi started his career as a teacher of chemistry at Cadet College Petaro, he quickly turned towards the profession of librarianship where he proved his mettle from the outset. During
