Govt plans to set up Pakistan Park at Quaid's Mausoleum

Will provide visual insight into cultural and social aspects and traditions of all provinces

ISLAMABAD: National History and Literary Heritage (NH&LH) Division will soon implement the idea of establishing a Pakistan Park at Quaid’s Mausoleum in Karachi which will provide a glimpse of all provinces.

“This park will be like a mini-Pakistan,” said Adviser to Prime Minister on NH&LH Irfan Siddiqui during a media interaction on Wednesday at National Book Foundation (NBF).

Pakistan Park will provide visual insight into cultural and social aspects and traditions of all the provinces, giving pictorial overview of the whole country.



The newly created division has taken strong and result oriented initiatives to reactivate all the 12 departments working under it.

Listing the initiatives taken by his division, Irfan Siddiqui revealed that the division has started work on PC-I of the National Museum of Pakistan in federal capital to house thousands of antiquities, representing country’s rich cultural heritage.

The work on the design of National Museum of Pakistan, to be built on 3.24 acres land adjacent to Lok Virsa, has been completed.

Siddiqui also announced that a new auditorium will be inaugurated at Pakistan Academy of Letters (PAL) this month while new offices of PAL are also being established in the remote areas of Dadu, Gilgit, Muzzarafabad and Fata to expand the scope of literary activities in the country.

He said participation of over 350,000 people in the recently held four-day National Book Festival reflected that booklovers still exist in this digital age.



During the four-day festival featuring 132 bookstalls and 70 different programmes, the books worth Rs20 million were sold out on discounted rates, he revealed.

Speaking about the performance of the division, Siddiqui said soon after assuming the charge as adviser, organisational structure of 12 of its departments was completed and renowned literary personalities were appointed as heads of these organisations to revitalise them.

He said the Endowment Fund of Rs500 million given by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for literary activities in the country has been invested in the National Bank of Pakistan and the profit from the fund would be used for the welfare of writers’ community.

The amount of the stipend for deserving literary persons was raised to Rs13,000 from Rs7,000, while the number of people receiving the stipends was increased from 500 to 1,000. The number of Kamal-i-Fun awards has also been increases from 12 to 20 while the amount has also been doubled, he said.

The adviser also mentioned other initiatives taken by his division including establishment of National Institute of Calligraphy, creation of Translation Bureau, arrangement of Vesakh festival for Buddhist monks, listing of archaeological sites at UNESCO’s list, and restoration of Readers Club Scheme.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 12^th, 2018.