Nestled at the top of the Shakarparian hills, the Pakistan Monument Museum holds within it the history of the Pakistan, the movement for partition and the challenges that faced migrants travelling from across the Indian subcontinent.

Established by the Lok Virsa National Institute of Folk and Traditional Heritage in 2010 to the west side of the Shakarparian hills, the museum pays tribute to figures who fought to make Pakistan a reality.

The museum’s exhibits cover ancient civilisations, the struggle for and birth of Pakistan and the country’s achievements since its founding.

It holds a vast collection of original relics, books, journals and documents, photographs and audiovisual materials.

The museum also has a reference library, an audiovisual archive, a conference hall and a 62-seat auditorium called the Panorama Hall.

At the entrance to the building stand statues of Mohammad Ali Jinnah and Fatima Jinnah riding in a horse-drawn carriage.

From here, the museum is divided into two parts. A tour of the galleries begins with an exhibit on the Gandhara civilisation, but most visitors are more interested in galleries featuring the Mohenjo-daro settlement and Harappan civilisation.

The Indus Valley civilisation is amongst the world’s oldest civilisations. According to recent findings of the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur, Harappa and Mohenjo-daro are over 2,500 years old.

The following galleries feature statues of Mohammad bin Qasim, Sultan Mehmood Ghaznavi, the Mughal emperor Zaheeruddin Babar, as well as Sufi saints such as Hazrat Ali Hajveri and Baba Farid Gunjbux.

Two galleries are dedicated to Allama Mohammad Iqbal. In one gallery, he is shown praying at the Cardoba Mosque in Spain. The architect has also attempted to recreate the grandeur of the mosque with a statue of Iqbal.

The galleries hold Iqbal’s personal belongings, including books, journals, carpets, documents and a hookah.

In his roznamcha, Iqbal has noted Rs1,450.5 paid in income tax on Jul 20, 1937.

Jinnah’s belongings are displayed in a separate gallery, which holds images of Jinnah’s meeting with Mohandas Gandhi in September 1944 in Mumbai, then known as Bombay, to break the stalemate between Congress and the Muslim League to pave the way for Indian independence.

Other images depict the invasion of Indian states by the East India Company, the mutiny of 1857, Tipu Sultan and the Jallianwala Bagh massacre on Apr 13, 1919 in Amritsar.

A gallery is also dedicated to migrants who travelled from various parts of the subcontinent to settle in India, and their suffering is documented here.

The last gallery depicts the founding of Pakistan, Jinnah taking oath and his speech to the legislative assembly in Karachi.

The monthly turnover of visitors to the museum is around 25,000, which comes to around 300,000 per year. Foreign delegates, dignitaries and state guests visit the museum regularly, and a number of students also visit the museum for research into the history and culture of Pakistan.

Published in Dawn, June 5th, 2016