KARACHI: Artists and art critics on Saturday demanded that the workshop of renowned artist late Shahid Sajjad be declared a cultural monument.

Speaking at a press conference, Salmana Shahid, the wife of the late artist, Sibte Shahid, his son, critics Saquib Hanif and Niilofur Farrukh said that the place was set to be bulldozed on April 23 (Monday) to make way for a commercial project.

They demanded that the government protect it so that it could be restored and made available to the coming generations of Pakistanis.

They said that Sajjad’s workshop was made where he practised his art and where “cultural history was made for 50 years”.

They said that it’s a legacy of the Pakistani nation and contained objects that made it an important museum. It housed the country’s bronze casting workshop with low wax method. It was also a place where the artist’s spirit lives among his carving tools and yet to be completed works, they added.

Published in Dawn, April 22nd, 2018