Thousands of rare ancient artifacts discovered from various historical places in the country are at risk of being ruined as there isn’t any proper facility in the Federal Capital to protect them.
“The artifacts retrieved from different historical places and recoveries made by the customs were housed on various floors and cupboards in different small rooms of the Department of Archeology and Museums (DOAM) due to lack of space at Sir Syed Memorial Museum Hall,” said Director General DOAM Dr Muhammad Arif while talking to APP.
These antiquities, Dr Arif said, included unique sculptures of Buddhist era, clay utensils, and guns of British era, oil lamps, jewellery boxes, Mother Goddess’s sculptures, Lantern, handwritten Holy Quran scripts and many others.
“Similarly the artifacts recovered from other countries were also placed in godowns of the museums including Sir Syed Memorial Hall Museum and Taxila Museum due to shortage of space,” he added.
After independence, the national museum was established in the then capital of Karachi, which was supposed to be shifted to Islamabad after becoming the federal capital, he remarked.
The Nucleus of National Museum was established in a small hall of Sir Syed Memorial Building in Islamabad where only 145 selected artifacts of the previous museum could be housed while the remaining were stored in Taxila Museum in 2002.
The architectural design of the proposed ‘National Museum of Pakistan’ was finalized through a competition, soon after the acquisition of land at Shakarparian 8.33 acres land from the Capital Development Authority (CDA) in 2009.
The PC-I for Rs 13,569.589 million was submitted to the authorities in 2008 but the project was suspended for two to three years by the then secretary culture due to financial constraints.
DOAM again submitted PC-I of Rs 55.577 million in September 2015 to the relevant ministry and the approval is still awaited.
Dr Arif emphasized that these antiquities must be properly housed to preserve them for future generations. For the purpose, he said, a proper museum should be set up in the capital.
He added that the nations which love their cultural heritage, always made progress and urged the government to pay special attention to this neglected area.
