A delegation of the Senate Standing Committee on National Heritage and Culture under the leadership of its Chairman Afnan Ullah Khan on Friday visited Mizar-e-Iqbal and Shakir Ali Museum. The committee members placed a bouquet of flowers and recited Fatiha at Mizar-e-Iqbal where they were presented a guard of honour on their arrival.
Dua was also offered for progress and prosperity of the country while Chairman Committee Afnan Ullah Khan recorded his impressions in the visitor’s Book.On this occasion, Afnan said: ” Allama Dr Muhammad Iqbal’s thought teaches us self-reliance”, adding that the government was trying to make Pakistan a prosperous and peaceful country according to the dream of Allama Iqbal.
“More than a poet and philosopher, Allama Iqbal was really a visionary leader and one of the greatest intellectuals of all times”, he added.
Secretary Committee Farzana Khalid, Senator Fouzia Irshad, Senator Falak Naz, Senator Keshoo Bai and Senator Atta Ur Rehman were also present. Later, the delegation also visited Shakir Ali Museum and they were briefed about the great artist known for cubist painting, bird images, drawing, teaching and Arabic calligraphy Shakir Ali.
Fatima Salman, Incharge Museum told the members that it was a fine museum with a good art collection and a very useful learning site for art students and teachers. Shakir Ali Museum offers visitors a chance to retrace footsteps, memories, accomplishments, events and personal life of the legendary artist through his former residential home.
She said that Shakir Ali Museum was the house which Shakir Ali built over a period of years. He, however, only lived in it for about one year after retiring as the principal of Natinal College of Arts in 1974. The house itself is a piece of architectural beauty with its exterior of burnt bricks and interior conceived and designed as a painting.
The Museum also has some of the private possessions of Shakir Ali like his ancestral Holy Quran hand- written in 1964, the awards and medals that he was decorated with during the course of his career both as a painter and teacher, and some very fine antiques in the shape of Bronze statues and wooden sculptures, Fatima Salman added.
Chairman Afnan Ullah Khan and other committee members took keen interest in artwork of the legendary Shakir Ali and lauded the management for keeping the museum preserved.
