LAHORE: The Pakistan National Council of Arts (PNCA) it seems has not accepted the advent of the latest technology as there is a huge collection of songs, ghazals and other genres of music lying at its subsidiary Shakir Ali Museum in cassettes that have long been obsolete and replaced with compact discs.

There are several packs lying there with four cassettes in each. Whoever wishes to listen to the classical gems by leading Pakistani singers would have to probably first purchase a tape recorder. This collection belonged to the PNCA head office in Islamabad but was shifted to Shakir Ali Museum here years ago for reasons best known to the then administration.

The PNCA head office ironically has the latest technology needed to convert these cassettes into CDs, but no pains have yet been taken.

This musical treasure contains hits from the late 1940s to the late 70s by evergreen singers such as Farida Khanum, Ghulam Ali, Ustad Salamat Ali Khan, Malika Pukhraj and Noor Jahan. There is another collection of instrumental music titled ‘50 years of Music in Pakistan’ that was also lying neglected in the same obsolete form.

Shakir Ali Museum Director Amna Pataudi said the collection belonged to the head office, adding that on the directions of PNCA Director General Iftikhar Babar a proposal would soon be sent to Islamabad to digitise the content. She said the cassettes were recorded through Shalimar Recording Company and contained musical evenings held in Islamabad under the umbrella of PNCA.

To a question about visual art activities at the museum in summer, Amna said after Eid they will kick off visual art workshops for beginners that would be conducted by seasoned teachers.

Published in Dawn, June 18th, 2016