ISLAMABAD: A two-day annual medical book fair kicked off at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) here on Monday.
Vice Chancellor Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Medical University (SZABMU) Prof Dr Akhram Javed inaugurated the book fair and visited different book stalls and appreciated the efforts of organizers. A large number of Doctors, medical students, nursing staff and booklovers were present on the occasion visited the fair.
Renowned publishers and booksellers of twin cities in collaboration with Young Doctors Association (YDA) PIMS have established their stalls and are selling local and foreign medical books with 25 to 40 percent discount. Thousands of books on medical sciences like Anatomy, Histology, Nutrition, Clinical Medicine and Surgery, Public Health, Food Sciences Human Nutrition, Microbiology, Pathology, Gyne & Obs, Pharmacology, Biochemistry Biotechnology, Pharmaceutical Science, are being sold on discount to the doctors and medical students along with a variety of medical instruments.
Talking to the Daily Patriot, Prof Dr Akhram Javed said that purpose of selling medical books on discounted prices was to promote the habit of book reading among doctors’.
Dr Javed said books didn’t lose their significance even in the age of information and communication technologies. “The vision and knowledge you get by reading books, you can never have it by just reading reviews and summaries on the internet. Personally, I never enjoyed reading books on a cell phone or a computer,” he said.
The vice chancellor requested each publisher to increase discount on books keeping in view that the buyers would be medical ‘students’.
He also directed the academic departments of Medical University and PIMS to purchase latest books on their subjects concerned from the book fair and made them available to medical students and doctors.
Dr Farooq Shah, President YDA PIMS said that such type of healthy activities must be organized on large scale as these activities provide medical students an opportunity to get books at one place and on discounted prices. He said that holding of such book fairs would help develop reading habit among students.
Dr Fartash Sarwar, chief organizer Ex. President YDA said the book fair had been an excellent experience even if you didn’t have a temptation to buy books.“It makes you aware of the latest books available on various topics,” he added.
Waheed Ahmed, a local vendor, said they were offering the best price at the fair. He said their real buyers were the post graduate trainees who were preparing for PLAB, FCPS, and MRCP examinations, adding they were expecting more response from medical students as well as doctors in the next two days.
He said students had become intelligent enough as they first read reviews about various books on internet and then purchased them
Quoting a data compiled by YDA, he said more than 500 books were sold on the opening day.