Pakistan

First Christian calligrapher’s work displayed

Holy Bible calligraphy exhibition held at Lok Virsa to mark Christmas celebrations.

Express December 24, 2010

ISLAMABAD: An exhibition of calligraphy on the Holy Bible by artist Shafique Shad Khan opened at the National Institute of Folk and Traditional Heritage, popularly known as Lok Virsa, on Thursday to mark Christmas celebrations.

The works on display are primarily based on sacred Biblical verses, said a press release. Khan uses oil paintings as his primary medium and has also employed water colour as filler.

Khan has done calligraphy in Persian, Urdu, Punjabi, English, Sindhi and Pushto. Although he has not received any formal education in arts, Khan has 111 solo exhibitions around Pakistan to his credit.

He has also presented his works to prominent personalities like Bill Clinton, Queen Victoria, Tony Blair and many others. He claims to be the first Christian calligraphist in the world. Since 1993, he has created 1,200 artistic pieces based on sacred Quranic verses, Biblical verses and Pakistan movement. The ceremony was attended by a large number of residents of the twin cities.

They commended the calligrapher’s work.

Federal Minister for Culture Pir Aftab Hussain Shah Jilani, the chief guest, praised Lok Virsa for holding the exhibition as part of their Christmas celebrations.

Referring to the historic statement of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Jilani said, “The government is committed to providing equal opportunities to all minorities.”

The minister said he appreciated the contribution of the Christian community towards the development of Pakistan.

Speaking on the occasion, Lok Virsa Executive Director Khalid Javed said, “This is an effort to involve all citizens, including minorities, to help them celebrate their happiness through arts, crafts, culture and musical activities.”

He said that a Christmas tree had been placed in front of the museum and a cake cutting ceremony was going to take place on December 25. A large number of people from the Christian community, in particular children, are expected to take part in the event, where Santa Claus will distribute sweets to children on Christmas Day. The exhibition will remain open for public till 25th December from 10am to 6pm daily except Friday.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 24^th, 2010.

COMMENTS (1)

Sara | 13 years ago | Reply How wonderful! Stories such as these should be given more publicity, to show the western world this side of Pakistan as well, especially since majority if not all of the western world, and more importantly the ordinary citizens of countries such as the US or UK, think that Pakistan is not friendly towards other religions. This would do wonders to improve our image if publicized more. Instead of breaking news on BBC or CNN about bad things happening to Christians in Pakistan, stories like these should be breaking news as well! This is upto our media to wake up and use its power to promote such events in such a manner, that the western media catches on to it.

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