March 31, 2006	Friday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 1, 1427

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LAHORE, March 30: Sixty-two relics belonging to Allama Iqbal displayed at the Allama Iqbal Museum (Javaid Manzil) are being shifted to the National Memorial Museum in Islamabad, it is learnt.

Poet-philosopher Iqbal’s (rare) photographs, manuscripts, letters, educational certificates, furniture, garments and crockery are among the 62 items.

Official sources told Dawn on Thursday that the federal ministry of culture and sports had directed the director general of the department of archaeology and museums to hand over the (selected) relics to the NMM. They said the culture ministry had issued the orders on the request of Lok Virsa, Islamabad, executive director.

They said the items were being handed over to the NMM on a permanent basis. Quite surprisingly, the NMM is likely to be opened in August this year.

“How can the culture ministry order transfer of Allama Iqbal’s belongings from the Javaid Manzil (Iqbal’s house) to the place which has yet to be established?” an archaeologist wondered.

He said: “Transferring 62 items is tantamount to closing the Iqbal Museum, as no more attraction will be left there for visitors.” The decision, he said, would also affect the students who came there for their PhD on Iqbal.

The selected items include manuscripts — Bale Jibreel, note book, Asrar-i-Khudi and an article — four letters, documents (floating account pass book, roznamcha, and typed memorandum), library books, nine photographs, three welcome addresses, educational certificates — PhD degree (1907), certificate of research (1907), D.Litt (honorary degree) — garments like black velvet cap, pashmina shervani, boski shirt, lawyer’s gown, kullah and lungi woollen tail coat, woollen waist-coat and a pair of shoes.

Furniture — three easy chairs, Victorian sofa, wooden desk, hat-stand, wooden bed — besides hand-knit woollen carpet (blue and maroon), crockery (metal tray with handles and wooden tray), ink-pot stand, spectacles, wrist watch, ashtray, wall clock, leather wallet and gold ring were other belongings of the poet.

The Allama Iqbal Museum (Javaid Manzil) was once the residence of the poet of east, who had purchased a seven-canal plot at a cost of Rs25,025 opposite the railway headquarters near Garhi Shahu in 1934. The building structure was completed with Rs42,000 in May 1935, the month his wife Sardar Begum passed away.

Iqbal named the building after his son, Dr Javaid, and also transferred the property rights in his (Javaid’s) name. Iqbal lived there as a tenant until his death in April 1938. He used to pay Rs50 as a monthly rent to his son.

In 1977, the government purchased the Javaid Manzil from Dr Javaid Iqbal for Rs4.6 million and established a museum. The then chief justice of Pakistan had suggested its name.

Most of Iqbal’s belongings have been donated to the museum by Dr Javaid Iqbal and Shaikh Ijaz Ahmad, Iqbal’s nephew.