Scholars at MUL Conference advocate efforts to promote book reading

Addressing the concluding session a two-day international conference on the topic of ‘library sciences knowledge economy’, Dr Hussain Mohi-ud-Din Qadri, president MQI and deputy chairman, BoG, Minhaj University Lahore, said there is a very robust book reading culture in the developed countries. He said the situation in Pakistan is dismal on this count. He underlined the need of serious steps to persuade the children to adopt the habit of book reading right from an early age. He said the MQI is going to launch a national drive to make the children book users, stating that the drive will be overseen and supported by MQI, MUL and all other forums of the organization. He emphasized the need for a shared approach and cooperation between teachers, parents, government and the intellectuals to promote the culture of book reading among the young students.

Former Chairman Punjab Higher Education Commission Dr Nizam-ud-Din also addressed the concluded session of the conference and said we need to promote the book reading culture right from the school level to the university level. He said that the government should include the benefits of book reading in the curriculum.

Vice-Chancellor Home Economics University Lahore Prof Dr Kanwal Ameen, while addressing the session, stressed the need of changing our thinking process to promote book reading. She suggested that research-based activities could be designed to attract the students to the book reading, which will help us advance in research and innovation.

The scholars from Australia, Sri Lanka, America, and Nigeria attended the Conference and read out their research papers. They congratulated MUL on arranging the Conference on an important topic.

The students of different faculties of MUL also held question and answer sessions with the guest scholars.

In his concluding remarks, Dr Hussain Mohi-ud-Din Qadri congratulated the VC MUL Dr Shahid Ghori and Pro Vice-Chancellor Dr Shahid Soroya on holding the conference in a wonderful fashion. He shared some interesting facts with the audience and told them that 80% of Chinese, 93% of Canadians, and 32% of Pakistan read newspapers and magazines. He said Indians, Americans, Australians, the British, Germany, South Africa and Turkey spend 10 hours, 6 hours, 6 hours, 5 hours and 6 hours respectively on studies in a week.

Dr Hussain Mohi-ud-Din Qadri distributed souvenirs and certificates among the visiting scholars and organizers of the Conference. MQI Secretary General Khurram Nawaz Gandapur, Noorullah Siddiqui and other central leaders were also present on the occasion.