Ameena Saiyid announces formal launch of new Pakistani publishing company

Ameena Saiyid has announced the formal launch of new Pakistani publishing company, Lightstone Publishers, Karachi.

“Now schools in Pakistan will have textbooks that are world-class and yet affordable and based on the Pakistani context, values, history and culture and cover our curriculum. Lightstone school textbooks are low-cost, high quality in content, design and production, and readily available throughout Pakistan,” said Ameena Saiyid OBE, SI, Publisher and Managing Director Lightstone Publishers, at its launch event at a hotel in Karachi on Monday.

According to a statement issued by Lightstone Publishers, the event was attended by heads of almost 100 leading schools from Karachi and was livestreamed on Facebook. The arrival of a new world-class Pakistani-owned publisher will provide a much-needed boost to the habit of reading and writing.

Keynote Saadia Mirza, director, Lightstone Publishers, said: “Lightstone Publishers support schools, pupils, and teachers in Pakistan and Pakistani schools in the Middle East by publishing in all the core subjects such as English language and reading, Urdu language and reading, Social Studies, Maths, Science, Grammar, and Information Technology.

“Lightstone Publishers organise face-to-face and online teacher training and provide teachers’ guides and lesson plans and online and face-to-face teacher training. Lightstone Publishers partner with Sabaq/Muse to provide educational digital resources.

“As Singapore is recognised as the world leader in maths and science, we have made alliances with leading Singapore publishers to adapt and publish the courses in maths and science. We are also collaborating with Cambridge University Press.” Nadia Ghani, publishing director, Lightstone Publishers, announced the publication of some ground-breaking general books, both fiction and non-fiction, by authors, including Tariq Khosa, General Fida Hussain Malik, Liaquat Merchant, Professor Sharif ul Mujahid, Sherry Rehman, Fouzia Saeed, Ambassador Abdul Basit, and a new novel by Irshad Abdul Kadir.

Lightstone has published the first book on Covid-19 in Pakistan edited by Huma Baqai and Nausheen Wasi. Nadia said, “As books from India can no longer be imported, Lightstone Publishers will be filling the void of publishing quality fiction by Pakistani writers.”

The chief guest was famous singer and educationist Shehzad Roy, Abbas Hussain of the Teachers’ Development Centre and founding member of SPELT, and Amin Hashwani of the Charter for Compassion.