June 19, 2003	Thursday	Rabi-us-Sani 18, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, June 18: Civil work on the under-construction building of the Museum of Ethnology and Folklore has almost been completed while work on the galleries will be finalized next year.

According to the Lok Virsa officials, most of the museums in Pakistan are antiquity museums built by the British.

The museum being established in the federal capital would be the first state museum of ethnology in the country to portray, display and explain the history, antiquity and living traditions of the people of Pakistan.

The officials said that the Lok Virsa had a collection of as much as 30,000 priceless and invaluable specimens of arts and crafts acquired from the far-flung areas of the country since 1974.

These specimens of heritage have been lying in large stores for want of facilities and resources.

The officials said efforts were likely to be made to undertake additional thematic collections to add to the existing collected material.

The building is located close to the Natural History Museum and adjacent to the Lotus Lake, the Shakarparian hill and the proposed Pakistan-Japan Centre.

At present, the Lok Virsa has twelve museum galleries. The complex of the galleries at present extend over three blocks with four galleries each.

The heritage library is the most original creation. The Lok Virsa has over 12 trained officers and fifty staff members for the upkeep of the museum.

The objective of the project is to prepare the museum for depiction of living traditions and regional ethnological heritage with a view to project both craftsmanship and lifestyle of the local people.