ENCOURAGING BOOK-READING FOR PLEASURE: KHALID MASOOD

An avid booklover, a fervent Urdu literature critique, a dedicated publisher and an owner of ‘Kitaab Ghar’, Khalid Masood says, “Kitaab Ghar (established 1948) has, recently, given incentive to book-readers to avail 50% rebate on purchase of books for a year time and that too for unlimited buying on a meagre membership fee of Rs: 500- that will instantly consumed on 50% discount of customers’ first visit at both outlets of Kitaab Ghar- at Committee Chowk, Rawalpindi and Jinnah Super Market (F-7 Markaz), Islamabad”- a first of its kind from a private entity.

 

MAHTAB BASHIR

0333-53 63 248

mahtabbashir@gmail.com

ISLAMABAD

"An hour spent reading is one stolen from Paradise."

The dedication and hard work of pioneering publishers, scholars, and book lovers have not come to fruition yet in Pakistan. Publishers have been demanding for decades for book publishing to be recognized as an industry. Despite repeated promises, the government has not taken any steps to materialize this demand.

 

Sitting in his bookstore named ‘Kitaab Ghar’ at Jinnah Super Market (F-7 Markaz), Khalid Masood says it is very unfortunate to see book-reading culture is on the decline in Pakistan. 

 

“It gives me pain to see that the habit of reading has been declining among our younger generation. While technology is steadily taking control over individual lives, we must find a way to encourage our children to read. Books are also costly, which is a contributing factor to the situation. Some parents discourage children from reading for pleasure and force them to read textbooks only,” Khalid says adding book reading is a contagious habit- if parents are away from books- their children are least bother to read books.

 

Also, the publisher opines, “The overuse of technology should be discouraged. The government should set up at least one library in every sector of Islamabad. Students should be encouraged to read books besides textbooks by teachers at school, college and university levels and by parents,” Khalid suggests.

 

Khalid Masood- Owner Kitaab Ghar

He said for the first time ever in the history of Pakistan, ‘Kitaab Ghar’ has taken this initiative to entice book-lovers through its ‘Readers Club Scheme’- under which we are providing 50% rebate on purchase of books of all genre annually without limit with the membership fee of Rs.500/=   

Khalid Masood maintains that membership card is valid on both outlets of ‘Kitaab Ghar’ of F-7 Markaz (Jinnah Super Market) and Committee Chowk, Rawalpindi.   

 

Khalid Masood, the CEO of ‘Kitaab Ghar’ narrates that, “Of course, interest is a matter of concern. Your disinterest might work to deter the child from the books. A good practice here is to mix and match varieties of stories, including topics you like. Reading and creating conversation about a book is a key skill which you can easily impart to your child.”

 

You wonder at times about the state of reading in the world you are part of. There is the sense that it is dying, that indeed these increasing levels of sophistication coming into technology are in essence putting holes into our old habits of reading. Not many people read today, which is a pity. Worse is the knowledge that bookstores are being downsized because business is not good. And what you have in place of these truncated, eventually murdered bookstores is storehouses of all those things that reflect the decline of intellect in our times.

 

Khalid Masood with his father Malik Ghulam Muhammad

Khalid describes that one of the positive changes brought about by the pandemic is the culture of online activities. “Not only did social media communities on Instagram and Facebook burst open with possibilities, seeing increasingly more book reviews, giveaways, and nation-wide book exchanges organised by readers themselves, but publishers and booksellers, too, adapted a regular practice of holding virtual book launches and discussions with authors.

On the other hand, question remains the same: “How many programmes are there on that ubiquity of television channels that cater to books, to reading? There are nations that are privy to book discussions on television, to authors talking about their works. Surely similar discussions for an hour or so every week can be injected into the television schedules in Pakistan.

 

There are newspapers, Urdu as well as English, which come up with weekly reviews of books. It would not be a bad idea calling in reviewers and bringing them in touch with readers through the medium of television and radio. There are rivers that nourish the land. And books nurture the soul, he keeps talking.

 

Telling a tale of his laborious father, Malik Ghulam Muhammad, Khalid Masood narrates: his father established ‘Kitaab Ghar’ in 1948 at Committee Chowk, Rawalpindi for the promotion of book and book-reading. After awhile, he started publishing books. He started publishing ‘novels’ of prominent Urdu and English writers. In 1964, he took the initiative for publication of a digest with the name of ‘Kamran Series’ with similar features of ‘Imran Series’- after publicity of Imran Digest, a mushroom growth of such publications took place in Lahore and Karachi.

Since then, Khalid says, he was head over heal in love with book-reading and publishing and indulged in this profession with his father- who died in 2012 at the age of 94. “Now is the time to think about qualitative development. We need to ensure excellence in book writing and publishing. And to do so, readership has to be developed in every part, in every institution of our society,” he says adding to keep publishing sector alive, we really need to bring in meritorious young entrepreneurs in this sector and for doing so, the government should recognize it as an industry.

With his kids Ali Masood & Hassan Masood

He requested National Book Foundation (NBF) high-up’s to to take effective measures to in promotion of book-reading through ‘Shehar-e-Kitaab’ situated in F-7 Markaz and to use its own property more efficiently.    

 

The World Culture Score Index conducted a global study to measure the amount of time that people around the world spend reading on a weekly basis. The results of this study do not specify what type of material is being read, which could be anything from online news to work e-mails and magazines to books in print. Additionally, the study does not report specific information about the people surveyed (like age, educational level, or sex) or how many people were surveyed.

 

https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-countries-that-read-the-most.html

 

India topped the list with its citizens reporting an average of 10 hours and 42 minutes a week spent reading. Achieving the number 1 position on the list is quite an accomplishment for this country, which has a literacy rate that is lower than the global average (only 74%). This rate has, however, increased by more than 6 times since the country gained its independence in 1947, which could be an indicator of an increasing interest in reading. This time spent reading does not necessarily reflect the amount of time reading printed books, however, and may include time spent reading online or in electronic format.*

HIGHER EDUCATION TURMOIL: DR. ATTA-UR-RAHMAN VERSION

In 2018, the appointment as chairman HEC of someone who was a lecturer at a low-ranking university in the US at the time of his appointment, raised many eyebrows. He had only four publications in international journals, which would have made him ineligible for consideration as an associate professor in a public-sector university in Pakistan which requires 10 publications in recognised journals.

What followed in the higher education sector over the subsequent two-and-a-half years was absolute devastation. This became evident at a major conference in Bhurban, in November 2021, where 180 vice-chancellors of the public- and private-sector universities participated and almost unanimously condemned his policies.

The VCs complained against the unreasonable undergraduate and postgraduate policies developed and imposed by the HEC, without stakeholder consultation; the attempts made to destroy PhD programmes in Pakistan by abandoning the need for a Master’s degree and offering direct admission into a PhD programme on the basis of BSc degree, risking the derecognition of the country’s PhD programmes due to non-conformity with the requirements of the internationally accepted Bologna protocol; the decay of the salary structure under the cherished contractual tenure track system; lack of coordination with the regulatory bodies such as the Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC), the National Business Education Accreditation Council (NBEAC), the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) that provide accreditations and no consultation with the Association of Private Sector Universities of Pakistan (APSUP) that also rejected those new policies outright; massive financial and administrative irregularities that led to NAB inquiries; and the National Research Programme of Universities (NRPU) budget cuts from over a thousand grants annually to less than 100 annually, destroying the research environment in universities as the programme used to provide research funding to young faculty members.

They were also irked at the growth of some 50 new universities during the tenure of the chairman without faculty or funding, resulting in a sharp decline in education quality as these universities poached teachers working at other public- and private-sector universities for their faculty needs – the HEC remained a silent bystander as the destruction took place; the attempts made to destroy existing research centers in universities by proposing to merge their budgets with university budgets and imposing an unwise funding formula; foreign scholarship cuts – from about 1,000 foreign scholarships annually to around 300 per year; and the non-absorption of the returning PhDs, who were forced to hold demonstrations outside the PM residence due to frustration.

These and a host of other complaints piled up in the PM Office, as the prime minister is the controlling authority of the HEC. Finally, after much thought, the Ministry of Education recommended that it would be in the fitness of things if the tenure of the HEC chairperson was two years (extendable) instead of four years as a huge amount of irreparable damage could be done in a four-year-long period by an incompetent individual. The HEC ordinance was accordingly changed.

Immediately after this, the HEC chairman held a number of press conferences falsely claiming that he was removed from office because he dared to audit the accounts of some research centres. After the careful analysis of the available documentary evidence, the Higher Education Commission (HEC), the very organisation that he chairs, stated in its press release that this was completely wrong, and it gave out the following statement:

“There have been incorrect statements made to the press by chairman HEC that he was removed from office because he tried to have the accounts of some research centres in Karachi University audited that he claimed are supervised by Dr Atta-ur-Rahman. The facts are as follows: a) Prof Atta-ur-Rahman has held no administrative position in any research centre or university for the last 20 years. No centres have been operating under his administrative or financial control since the year 2002.

“b) HEC had requested for academic and financial audit of [the] International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences. The requests were strongly welcomed by the centre in writing. The only requirement of the centre was in connection with the academic audit – that it should be carried out by experts in the relevant fields of chemistry and biology, which was reasonable.

“An academic audit of the International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences was conducted by 11 international experts in 2018. It was commissioned by the Ministry of Science and Technology and in their report all the 11 foreign experts were unanimous in their praise of the high quality of research work being conducted in the centre, and had recommended additional financial support for it.

“c) The Ministry of Education objected to the funding formula proposed by HEC for all university research centres and pointed out that it was not suitable, without precedence and that it would badly damage research. The issue therefore was never about the auditing of accounts or transparency, as has been wrongly portrayed by Chairman HEC in statements to the press.

“d) HEC had proposed to take away the autonomy and merge the budget of the International Center of Chemical and Biological Sciences with that of the University of Karachi. This was not possible as the government has a formal agreement with UNESCO that its financial autonomy will be maintained. This was pointed out by the Ministry of Education to HEC in writing.

“This centre is the UNESCO Center of Excellence, the TWAS Center of Excellence, OIC Center of Excellence and the WHO Collaborating Center. Its faculty members have won more civil awards and international prizes than any other academic Center in Pakistan, including one Nishan-e-Imtiaz, four Hilal-e-Imtiaz, 13 Sitara-e-Imtiaz and eight Tamgha-e-Imtiaz and many honorary doctorate degrees from foreign universities including the University of Cambridge UK. The work of the Center has been praised by many Nobel Laureates. The accounts of ICCBS are regularly audited by the government and are well maintained. The Center is headed by Prof Iqbal Choudhary, a leading scientist of Pakistan, since 2003”.

The above statements exposed the HEC chairperson’s incorrect statements. The powers of the commission given to the chairperson were withdrawn after he tried to illegally appoint an executive director. These powers are now vested with the HEC executive director.

The Higher Education Commission (HEC) needs a new visionary chairperson who strictly abides with the law and who can restore the respect and admiration that it enjoyed in the first decade of its existence.

The writer is chairman PM National Task Force on Science and Technology, former minister, and former founding chairman of the HEC.

Courtesy: The News