ISLAMABAD: Despite passage of over a week’s time when Capital Development Authority (CDA) came to know about the theft of portraits of Allama Iqbal and a Romanian poet, the civic agency still remains clueless about their whereabouts.

The issue of stolen portraits from a monument in Blue Area was highlighted by media recently, but CDA and Islamabad administration, despite having police and other resources, have not been able to find them.

The monument was built in 2004 to pay homage to both great poets and promote cultural relations between Pakistan and Romania. Besides, portraits of Pakistan’s national poet Allama Iqbal and Romanian national poet Mihai Eminescu their work was also highlighted. But due to negligence of authorities concerned, the monument was badly damaged.

Interestingly, the issue of missing portraits was highlighted by the Romanian embassy.

Then last week, when media highlighted this issue CDA through city magistrate came into action and got an FIR registered against “unknown thieves”.

Sources in police and CDA said that there was no clue to the missing portraits. However, they said that efforts were afoot to reach the culprits.

An official of the CDA said there was need to check all junkyards of Islamabad and Rawalpindi to locate the portraits.

It may be mentioned here that the monument was inaugurated by former prime minister Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain.

“FIR of the incident has been registered with Kohsar police station and reconstruction work of the monument has also started,” said CDA’s spokesperson Shahid Kiani.

Meanwhile, an officer of the civic body said the CDA had decided to get input from renowned artist Jamal Shah to carry out renovation work and arrange new portraits. Like Iqbal, Eminescu (1850-1889) is a national poet of Romania and his work influenced generations of local writers.

Published in Dawn, January 21st, 2025