Established in 1973 in a small building with Faiz Ahmed Faiz as its founding chairperson, the Pakistan National Council of Arts (PNCA) soon emerged as the focal organisation for the promotion of arts and culture.

To this day, art enthusiasts from across the country flock to the council, which has preserved the work of Pakistani artists for decades.

The organisation has been led by several prominent artists since its inception, from Khalid Saeed Butt to Kishwar Naheed, Ghulam Rasul to Naeem Tahir. Now, however, the bureaucracy runs the affairs of the artists’ organisation.

The stone laying for the new PNCA building was held during the tenure of Kishwar Naheed, and completed in the tenure of Naeem Tahir in 2007. Then president Gen Pervez Musharraf inaugurated the building. The four-storey building houses a modern auditorium, an amphitheatre, 14 galleries, administration offices, teaching areas and a cafeteria. However, the most impressive thing about PNCA is its collection of fine art, featuring artists such as Sadequain, Haji Sharif, Zubaida Agha, Rabia Zuberi and Ghulam Rasul.

The building entrance opens into a courtyard, and the Mughal and pre-Mughal style architecture allows for a well-lit, airy and majestic ambiance. The central courtyard is made up of arches, buttresses, cornices and corbelling reminiscent of Cordova, Spain. A statue by Rabia Zuberi depicting the seven stages of human life in the context of life’s struggles and terrorism welcomes guests.

There is also a gallery dedicated to the legendary Sadequain, which displays many of his works as well as a book on his work in present times.

PNCA director and the in-charge of the National Art Gallery, Musarat Naheed Imam, said the council aims to formulate a state cultural policy for the promotion of the arts and clearly identified avenues of action.

She said that over the last few decades, it had encouraged creative individual talent, fostered a sense of purpose in national identity and cohesion based on belief and tradition, implemented international cultural agreements under the advice of the government, and coordinated and supervised cultural bodies throughout the country.

“PNCA had a large collection of art pieces. To preserve the art work of masters, the National Art Gallery launched two programmes and established a laboratory to restore the work,” she said. She said the gallery had restored 700 pieces of art and were assisted by experts on preserving oil painting and sculptures.

Published in Dawn, March 6th, 2016