Musharraf asks Artists: Project Pakistan’s Peaceful, Tolerant Image  
By Aziz Malik ‘Pakistan Times’ Federal Bureau Chief

ISLAMABAD: President General Pervez Musharraf has urged artists in the country to use their work in countering extremism and terrorism and to project Pakistan's soft image.

Inaugurating the National Art Gallery built on a small hillock opposite the country’s Parliament and the Aiwan-e-Sadr, late Saturday night, he said “it is vital to project a soft, peaceful and tolerant image of Pakistan, to counter the negative propaganda.”

The President also announced establishment of a Centre for Performing Arts in Islamabad and said he would ask the Prime Minister to release necessary funds for the project.

“This nation has a great cultural heritage that extends back into centuries and needs to be projected abroad,” President Musharraf told the gathering of country’s leading artists, painters, singers, writers, intellectuals, dramatists and musicians.

The President, who also accepted the offer of being the Patron-in-Chief of the Pakistan National Council of Arts (PNCA), said the new gallery will expose country’s rich trove of arts and culture to the world.

He said the Rs 456 million gallery will help the local artists interact with their foreign counterparts, helping intensive cultural contacts to forge stronger bonds.

“This centre will house the creative genius of our people, dating back to centuries and show the world our rich cultural past and present,” the President told the gathering comprising a large number of diplomats and people from different walks of life.

The President expressed his satisfaction over various projects that were initiated during the past seven years to encourage arts in the country.

He referred to the expansion of Quaid’s Mausoleum, Centre for Performing Arts in Karachi, National Heritage Museum and National Monument in Islamabad, Bab-e-Pakistan at Lahore and Rawalpindi branch of Lahore’s National Arts College.

President Musharraf paid tributes to the PNCA Chief Executive Naeem Tahir, the architect Naeem Pasha, engineers and workers who worked hard to make this project a success.

The National Art Gallery with a covered area of 1800 square yards, has 14 galleries with adjacent display areas, lecture halls, workshop and storage facilities, laboratories and library.

The modernistic brick cube, built by its architect Naeem Pasha, is a model of Miesian purity and functionality. The four-storey gallery has modern facilities, having an auditorium with capacity for 400, a theatre, stage facilities and an open air theatre.

Minister for Culture Dr G G Jamal said the new National Art Gallery is the symbol of the government’s resolve to place arts in the mainstream of polity.

He said his ministry consistently worked to mobilize culture in the service of country’s future vision of enlightened moderation under the guidance of President Pervez Musharraf.

Director General PNCA Naeem Tahir briefed the audience about the maiden art exhibition titled ‘Moving Ahead’ at the NAG, depicting the moment to move ahead on the journey of creativity.

He termed the completion of gallery as a great achievement and urged the need to re-confirm determination to move ahead as a caravan of artists.

The project has undergone a long journey from dream to reality, since the then President General Zia ul Haq issued a directive for its construction in the capital in 1981. The project that lagged for almost 24 years has been completed in 19 months.

In a nation-wide design contest in 1989, the design of Messrs Suhail and Pasha was selected for the construction of gallery.●