ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: As many as 7,000 people have so far been registered as members of Readers Club Scheme of National Book Foundation (NBF) in 2017 across the Country, an official of NBF said.
The registered member are offered 50 percent discount on purchasing books of their choice, the official told the state-run news agency in Islamabad.
The official said that the foundation has expanded the circle of Readers Club Scheme to 36 Cities from 17 and increased the purchasing limit for the readers from Rs 5000 to Rs 6000 annually.
The NBP official said that the membership for this public-oriented scheme was opened by NBF last month with an objective to promote book reading culture among the youth. He said that the foundation has set target to facilitate 25,000 readers this year and the membership facility would remain open till achieving the target.
The National Book Foundation has registered over 130 book stalls and set-up 24 book outlets across the Country while awareness raising campaign is also being carried out through different sections of social media.
The official said that a large number of people are visiting the outlets of NBF for getting the membership of Readers Club Scheme. He said that this initiative has played instrumental role in reviving book reading culture among the younger generation.
Readers Club is one of the most public oriented book promotional activity attracting readers to buy books of their choice at half price.
Besides promoting reading habit, it encourages the overall book industry, help increasing literacy rate, create reasonable demand for good quality reading material and motivating young generation towards developing reading culture in the society.
During the year 2017-18, the project has set a target to facilitate over 25,000 readers with the allocated amount of Rs 35.2 million. The scheme has benefitted 301,734 readers from the year 1985-86 till 2016-17.