KARACHI, Feb 7: The Pakistan Post Office has failed to establish a postal museum about which an announcement was made almost two years ago.

Well-placed sources told Dawn on Tuesday that work on the postal museum, which would be established on I.I. Chundrigar Road, had not been completed.

"The pace of work has slowed down lately. But the postal museum, when constructed, would also have a research centre accompanied by a library," he said. However, the Sindh postmaster-general was not available for comment.

The sources recalled that the announcement about the establishment of the postal museum was made by the Sindh postmaster-general at the concluding ceremony of a three-day national stamps exhibition at the Arts Council of Pakistan, Karachi, in Feb 2003. They added that according to the design of the museum, it would be spread over 500 square yards and would house all the stamps issued by the Universal Postal Union.

The Universal Postal Union (UPU), a specialized United Nations agency which is headquartered in Berne, Switzerland, was established on Oct 9, 1874. "The museum would also put on display uniforms worn by postmen since the inception of the Pakistan Post Office. The library would contain books on philately. Students and researchers would be allowed to have access to the library free of charge," they explained.

They said that philately exhibitions would also be held at the postal museum on I.I. Chundrigar Road on a regular basis, adding that stamp clubs would be opened at schools to make philately popular among schoolchildren.

The sources said that like the postal museum, plans for the establishment of a postal mall in the city had also been in cold storage.

A prize-winning philatelist, Rafiq Kasbati, told Dawn that a postal museum would immensely help stamp-lovers. "Philatelists would be able to learn a lot from the objects on display. It is a pity that such an important project has not got off the ground," he said.

Mr Kasbati, who is the proud possessor of the first postal stamp issued in Asia in 1852, added that in Taipei he had seen a 14-storey postal museum which remained crowded at all times.