ISLAMABAD: Nestled in the heart of Islamabad, is Pakistan’s largest iconic bookstore, a reader’s paradise and its presence somewhat symbolic to the identity of the bureaucratic and political city which has found itself standing at crossroads amid declining reading trends, digital disruption, and piracy that have gravely impacted the brick-and-mortar banks of knowledge.

Ahmed Saeed, CEO and owner of Saeed Book Bank has been contemplating to downsize or scale up to keep his business, his father’s legacy afloat which rapidly is running out of steam.

Rental amount of commercial properties is through the roof that many other smaller bookstores struggle to cope with as sales drop and taxes rise. That is not his concern since he owns the property but rather the upkeep and large staff employed.

Rejecting widespread reports suggesting Saeed Book Bank is on the verge of collapse as several odds are stacked against it including digital media, cost of book import, and sharp drop in sales, Saeed said that he was in fact turning a new leaf to keep the business up.

“For that very reason we have planned to add two more floors (to the existing three) here and open a coffee shop, book talk, and book launch (area) so that the footfall of the customers can increase”, Saeed said explaining that it may take up to three years after the Capital Development Authority approves his planned idea but he may opt to also sublet the ground floor to a corporate just to meet expenses and save his business.

Established in 1952 in the garrison city of Rawalpindi by his late father Saeed Qureshi before relocating the business to the north western provincial capital, Peshawar and then to Islamabad in 1999 after facing militant threats, the Saeed family business boomed in the capital owing to the number of diplomats, foreigners, educational institutes, non-profits, and government officials during a calm progressive period before Pakistan was stripped of its family station status by the United Nations as a wave of terrorism engulfed the country post 9/11.

“We had been doing good business but (now) business is not very good”, said Saeed speaking to Arab News on the near empty floor of his spatial three storied, 42,000 square feet bookstore that shelves over 200,000 titles located in the bustling market of F-7.

“There are a couple of reasons (why sales are down) but people should encourage their kids to buys books”, he said stressing on the decline in the interest of reading nationwide generally blaming parents which he says would rather buy expensive toys and electronic devices for their children but consider books “trash then treasure” adding that many bookstores across Pakistan are shutting down unable to meet sustainable targets to run their business.

Saeed travels frequently abroad to purchase books for his store. Narrating his experience from those trips overseas, he said that “families, when they give pocket money to their children, they ask them to keep different portions of the amount to spend on charity, friends, savings, and for books” that helps build their interest to read.

“But in Pakistan people consider buying a book, not a necessity but a complete waste”.

His business woes linked to reading habits may be right because according to a 2019 Gallup survey conducted by its affiliate in Pakistan, three in four Pakistanis which 75 percent claim not to read books and only nine percent are avid readers.

Globally digital media has disrupted mainstream media and industries but business for the top emblematic publication houses in the west remains strong as physical books outsold eBooks according to reports and number of readers are at least ten folds higher than in Pakistan.

Arab News has more in this video report.