Islamabad - National History and Literary Heritage (NH&LH) will soon implement the idea of establishing a state-of-art “Pakistan Park” in the premises of Quaid Mausoleum in Karachi which will provide a glimpse of the entire province, said Advisor to Prime Minister on NH&LH, Irfan Siddiqui

Advisor to Prime Minister on NH&LH, Irfan Siddiqui said this during a media interaction at National Book Foundation (NBF).

“Pakistan Park” will provide the visitors a visual insight into cultural and social aspects and traditions of all the provinces, giving pictorial overview of the whole country. “This Park will be like a Mini Pakistan”, he said.

The newly created division has taken strong and result oriented initiatives to reactivate all the 12 departments working under it.

Listing the initiatives taken by his division, Irfan Siddiqui revealed that the division has started work on PC-I of the National Museum of Pakistan which will pave the way to creation of a national level museum in federal capital to house thousands of antiquities, representing country’s rich cultural heritage.

The work on the design of National Museum of Pakistan, to be built on 3.24 acres land adjacent to Lok Virsa, has been completed.

Irfan Siddiqui also announced that a new auditorium will be inaugurated at Pakistan Academy of Letters (PAL) this month while new offices of PAL are also being established in the remote areas of Dadu, Gilgit, Muzzarafabad and FATA to expand the scope of literary activities in the country.

The participation of over 3,50,000 people in the recently held four-day National Book Festival reflected that people have a great love for the books despite the advent of modern technology.

During the four-day festival featuring 132 book stalls and 70 different programs, the books worth Rs. 20 million were sold out on discounted rates, he revealed.

Speaking about the performance of the division, Irfan Siddiqui said soon after assuming the charge as Advisor, organizational structure of 12 of its departments was completed and renowned literary personalities were appointed as heads of these organizations to revitalize these.

He said the Endowment Fund of Rs. 500 million given by former Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif for literary activities in the country is invested in the National Bank and the funds generating from this amount would be utilized for the welfare of writer’s community.

The amount of the stipend for deserving literary persons was raised from Rs. 7000/ upto Rs. 13,000 while the number of stipends was increased from 500 to 1000. The number of Kamal-i-Fun awards has also been increased from 12 to 20 while the amount has also been doubled, he said.

The insurance cover for literary persons was also expanded from 350 writer’s upto 700 with increase in the amount.

The Advisor also mentioned the other initiatives taken by his division including arrangement of national and international calligraphy exhibitions and calligraphy competition, establishment of National Institute of Calligraphy, installment of Water Treatment Plant at Quaid’s Mausoleum, creation of Translation Bureau, arrangement of Vesakh festival for Buddhist monks, listing of archaeological sites at UNESCO’s list, restoration of Readers Club Scheme, creation of Braille Corner at National Library of Pakistan, digitalization of 22 volumes of Urdu Dictionary and implementation of Urdu as official language.

Irfan Siddiqui announced to hold an International Conference on Allama Iqbal at Lahore on April 24 where international scholars will participate.