Pakistan’s paper crisis affecting students in the new academic year

There’s a looming paper crisis in Pakistan, brought about by the economic crisis, rising inflation, and a heavy tax on imported paper. The Publishers and Booksellers Association of Pakistan has said that the school boards in Sindh, Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will be unable to print new books, resulting in millions of students not getting textbooks for the new academic year, unless urgent measures are taken.

Aziz Khalid, the Chairman of the Association, said that there’s been an increase of Rs 100 per kg of local paper, which is pushing the printing and packaging industry towards collapse.

Publishers are faced with a shortage of imported paper, as they’re taxed heavily by the government, while local paper is relatively inferior and has seen a near 200% rise in cost this year. This has led to the dwindling of importers’ margins, and has pushed up costs for the middle-class consumer. The demand has outstripped production given the local hand paper mills’ inability to scale.


The 18,000 businesses in printing and packaging in Pakistan are demanding to reduce taxation and import duties on paper to avert a textbook crisis. Currently, there’s no pricing formula between the government and private publishers, a concern that needs addressing, according to the Association.

This comes on a back of an economic crisis that has gripped the nation, with China being resolute on its loan payback. Pakistan continues to take extensive loans from China, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar, while also availing loans from the International Monetary Fund. This has placed it in a vicious cycle of taking loans to pay back previous loans, a situation made worse by an apparent global slowdown in economic growth.