Kamal Ahmed Rizvi and Sahar Ansari also graced, by their presence, the simple but colourful ceremony that was held at the premises of the Arts Council. The ribbon was cut by some sitting office-bearers of the Council, namely H.H. Hashmi, Saifur Rehman Grami and Yawar Mehdi.
The new restaurant will play the same role the Arts Council’s old restaurant, called “Gulbahar”, had played, said one of its members while talking to Dawn. “And the restaurant will promote the values which had been upheld by the famous coffee shops, and other meeting places, of Urdu literature.”
He said some of the tables inside “Gulrang” are likely to be named after famous Pakistani writers and artists. The leading names in this regard are Faiz Ahmed Faiz and Sadeqain.
Meanwhile, the Council’s sitting secretary, Saifur Rehman Grami, said the cultural body had spent Rs500,000 on the construction of “Gulrang”, which would be repaid by donations from sponsors. In appreciation of the donations, the sponsors’ names would be inscribed on a plaque to be placed near the restaurant.
Old-timers of the Arts Council recalled that some 15 years ago the office-bearers of the cultural body had closed down its restaurant — then known as Gulbahar — for monetary reasons. They added that subsequently many times the successive governing bodies of the Council had tried either to reconstruct or to renovate the restaurant but without success.
Mr Grami recalled that some time back in Lahore the owner of Pak Tea House, a favourite haunt of artists and men of letters, had decided to close down the restaurant saying that he could no longer afford to run the place. “It was when the citizens of Lahore came to the streets to protest the closure of the tea house that the government provided Rs10 million.
“On the contrary, here in Sindh the government remained unmoved as many coffee houses, including the restaurant at the Arts Council, and no fewer than seven bookshops on Abdullah Haroon Road wound up their concerns one after another.”
The old-timers said that previously Gulrang had stood where a permanent art gallery, known as A.R. Faridee Art Gallery, ran now. “The Arts Council wanted to construct the restaurant over the permanent art gallery, but technical experts declared that this was not possible. That was why the Arts Council decided to construct ‘Gulrang’ in front of the foyer.”