Anyone who can read does, or should if they don’t. That’s a pretty much established expectation from citizens of today, plugged in as they are in a rapidly connected world where profusion and exchange of ideas and information is hard to evade.

It wouldn’t be easy to elicit a contrary view in Pakistan from even those who can read don’t. Are then those who can read but don’t because they don’t want to or because, for various reasons, they can’t either afford to or can’t find what they want or are too distracted?

This is but just one aspect of a growing debate in Pakistan centred round the contention that people are reading more versus the perception that the numbers of readers is declining.

The trouble with analysing this polarity is the absence of reliable and consistent data -- even basic one -- that would indicate whether the indigenous publishing industry in Pakistan is growing not just in size but also output, and if so, how much, and reliable sales figures. Additionally, are more books being imported into Pakistan and if so, what’s the scale in terms of books shifting from shelves to homes?

Sure there’s random and outdated data but a slightly better resolution of this examination could be observational and anecdotal evidence. For the better part of this millennium, compared to 15 years preceding it, there has been a spurt in Pakistani novelists writing in English with both national and international accolade. Well-attended public launches of these books and their substantial coverage in media, both print and electronic, indicate a growing public interest in books and demand for more. At least in English print media there are more reviews and literary criticism available and the now consistent literary festivals have helped.

Desi writers, vilayati novels

The major (comparably in Pakistani terms) book selling ventures -- not just scale-ups of pre-existing book stores like Liberty in Karachi and Vanguard and Ferozesons in Lahore but also newer aggressive enterprises like Readings in Lahore and Saeed Books in Islamabad -- have dramatically improved sales of titles by desi writers, led by but not limited to Mohammed Hanif, Kamila Shamsie, Mohsin Hamid, Bina Shah, Aamer Hussein, Uzma Aslam Ali, Musharraf Ali Farooqi, Nadeem Aslam, Qaisra Shahraz, Daniyal Mueenuddin and Moni Mohsin. A newer crop of writers like Bilal Tanweer, Omar Shahid Hamid, Saba Imtiaz and Murtaza Razvi are supplementing the sales.

Significantly, these relatively robust sales are not pirate copies, which hopefully means Pakistani writers are getting thoroughly deserved royalties and enough incentive to keep writing. Dozens of other bookshops in these cities, as well as in Peshawar, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Multan and Quetta, which sell cheap pirate copies, are also making some money from these writers.

For better, all these helpful sales, and therefore new readers, this has also helped bring a new generation of readers to sample relatively older writers like Hanif Kureishi, Adam Zameenzad, Bapsi Sidhwa, Muneeza Shamsie, Zulfikar Ghose, Tariq Ali, Sara Suleri and Tariq Rahman with their staple literary works from the 1980s and 1990s, which are seeing happy reprints from local imprints.

Classical and contemporary kahanian

Managers of these larger bookshops say that for some years now they have been selling not just more Pakistani English fiction titles than ever, but also, surprisingly, more 20th Century Urdu literary classics. There has been a sharp uptake in the reprints and sales of iconic tomes like Aag Ka Darya, Chandni Begum and Akhir-e-Shab Kay Humsafar, by Qurratulain Haider, Udaas Naslain, Nadar Log and Bagh by Abdullah Hussain, Terhi Lakir, Kaghazi Hain Pairahan and short story collections by Ismat Chughtai, short story collections by Saadat Hasan Manto, Raja Gidh and Doosra Darwazah by Bano Qudsia, and Baba Sahiba and Zawiya series by Ashfaq Ahmed, among others. Books by other writers like Ghulam Abbas, Ahmed Nadeem Qasmi, Intizar Husain, Qudratullah Shahab, Shafiqur Rehman and Umera Ahmed are also big sellers.

The demand is pleasantly surprising not least because it constitutes a resurgence of reading by a largely a new crop of readers now getting into their middle years but because most these new edition Urdu books are expensive by Pakistani standards and average between Rs700 and Rs1,800 a piece.

Within the non-pulp Urdu fiction category a relatively new crop of Pakistani authors who started writing novels in this short century are becoming rock stars in their own right. Mirza Athar Baig (Ghulam Bagh, Sifar Se Aik Tak and Hasan Ki Soorat-e-Haal), Ali Akbar Natiq (novel Naulakhi Kothi and shorter fiction), Mustansar Hussain Tarar (Qurbat-i-Marg Mein Muhabbat, Daakiya and Qila Jangi), Hassan Manzar (Dhani Bakhsh Kay Baitay) and Younas Javed (Kanjri Ka Pul) have been selling well and consistently.

In brand new reprints of short fiction collections and novels, embellishing these sales are books by Indian writers in Urdu such as Rajinder Singh Bedi, Krishan Chandar, Gopi Chand Narang and new sensation Shamsur Rahman Faruqi whose Kai Chaand Thay Sar-i-Asman is a top seller in Pakistan.

Other than western imports in English fiction, which constitutes around two-thirds of all fiction sold at the above-mentioned major bookshops, there is a discernible increase in sales of Indian fiction in English, itself a formidable industry cranking out dozens of new novel titles a year.

However, nearly every book store one cares to visit in Pakistan can be characterised by the display of copious numbers of religious or current affairs (mostly propagating conspiracy theories or fringe extrapolations) titles that seemingly reflect a demand more for affirmation of pre-existing notions and beliefs than alternative interpretations and broadened horizons of comprehension.

But then that’s a different debate altogether.

The reading millions

The general Pakistani lament of there not being enough readers to constitute a cultural phenomenon in its own right is not without merit. However, to emphasise the overt generalisation that no one reads anymore is also grossly misleading. This being a big country -- anywhere around 200 million potential readers -- it is easy to gloss over the fact that even a small percentage of readers amount to decent numbers. A poll on book reading habits conducted by Gilani Research Foundation in 2013 shows 30 per cent Pakistanis say they read books. This translates into 60 million readers!

The catch is that of those who read, 36 per cent prefer reading religious texts. Of the nationally representative sample of 2,640 men and women in urban and rural areas of all four provinces who answered ‘Yes’ to the question "Do you read books (other than school/college text books)?" were further asked "Normally what kind of books do you read?" A total of 36 per cent said ‘religious’ books, 32 per cent said ‘informative’ books, 22 per cent said ‘novels/digests’ and 10 per cent said ‘poetry.’

So, there you have it. Quite a few read in Pakistan. But what they read is, in big part, dictated more by what’s easily available (religious texts and poetry in non-specialist shops closer to homes) and cheaper (again religious texts and poetry) than what’s not.

In short, the demand is there but supply (of a more varied nature of titles, texts and types of reading) isn’t anywhere enough to expand their palette.

Hopefully the publishers are reading this.