LAHORE: The Punjab Art and Craft Museum is likely to be merged into the Punjab Museum, which works under the Punjab Institute of Language, Art and Culture (Pilac).

Officials told Dawn that the merger decision was likely to be taken to improve preservation of artifacts as the art and craft museum is currently housed in a small room (at Alhamra Cultural Complex) hardly fit to keep rare products.

At a recent meeting, they said, Pilac submitted a proposal to Secretary Culture Raja Jahangir to merge the two museums to better manage the artifacts.

Pilac Director General Dr Sughra Sadaf told this reporter that the matter of merger was discussed at a meeting with the secretary culture and a decision would be taken soon. She said Pilac was a representative institution of Punjab’s heritage and culture which must be preserved at a better place. Pilac, she said, had got sufficient space to keep the artifacts.

The secretary culture said both the institutions had mutually agreed to go for the merger.

Punjab Council of Arts Executive Director Chaudhry Asif said the council was willing to hand over the Museum to Pilac with the staff and budget since the Punjab Council of Arts lacks proper place to maintain the museum.

The Alhamra Cultural Complex houses the Punjab Art and Craft Complex in a cramped room, where the artifacts have been kept. The PCA claims that it had earlier come up with many proposals to shift the museum to some proper place but to no avail.

Established in 2007, the Punjab Museum boasts a collection of musical instruments, household items, kitchen utensils, ornaments, decoratives, toys, textiles, pottery, cultural paintings, handicraft, dresses, weapons, coins and Punjabi manuscripts.

Published in Dawn February 1st, 2017