July 23, 2007	Monday	Rajab 07, 1428

MULTAN, July 22: The Punjab government is pondering over a plan to showcase the regal lifestyle and culture of people in the old Bahawalpur state by launching a Rs100 million project at the Bahawalpur Museum.

Museum director Husain Ahmad Madni said here on Sunday models depicting the lifestyle of the people during the 275-year history of Bahawalpur as a state would be displayed. Antiquities of that time too would be procured for the museum — the only one in south Punjab and the second biggest such facility in Punjab after the Lahore Museum, he said.

He said modalities of the project were yet to be finalised since it was a project demanding extensive research.

“There were 800 states in the subcontinent at one time, some as small as having only one-square mile area, but all had distinctive cultures and lifestyles,” he said.

Mr Madni said an antiquities bank had been set up to preserve the priceless relics at the museum, installed with a modern security system with closed-circuit televisions and censors under a Rs7.8 million project.

A hefty Rs45 million were being spent on the uplift of the museum. —APP