Simra Kiani/ Zakia Rasheed / 14 Oct 2020
Founding Chief Executive, Lok Virsa Museum, Mr. Uxi Mufti has refreshed his allegations against Dr Fouzia Saeed (the then ED Lok Virsa) of stealing cultural extravaganza from Heritage Museum of Pakistan (Lok Virsa) and handing it over to different countries including India. Moreover Uxi Mufti has also blamed her of sharing the heritage with a TV Channel that is actually a propaganda forum against Pakistan. Uxi Mufti has claimed all this in his letter to Prime Minister of Pakistan through PM Portal Complain on 13 Oct with (what he considers) full evidence No IS121020-87451503.
Earlier on 20 Sep 2020 , Dr Fouzia Saeed, presently Director General Pakistan National Council of Arts PNCA had categorically denied the allegations.
Mr Uxi Mufti, in his latest attempt to bring this matter up again has written a letter direct to the PM in which he says that “ I Uxi Mufti son of Mumtaz Muftee am the Founding Chief Executive of Lok Virsa and also the Creative Project Director of Heritage Museum and The National Monument Museum located at Islamabad.
He adds that “In the year 1974, I began a programme of village to village collection and professional archiving of Pakistani Folklore, Ballads , Romances, Bedtime Tales, Legends, Musical Narratives, Sufi Songs and what not to create a Cultural Archive for Pakistan at Heritage Museum, Lok Virsa. By the year 2000 the archive developed a large number of recordings on professional telecast standards video and broadcast standards audio. Nearly 20,000 recorded audio tapes and 7000 recorded video tapes which made this collection the largest archive of Pakistan’s Traditional Cultural Heritage.”
“This invaluable cultural data about Pakistan, our ethnic communities, remote and sensitive regions, our minorities, our folk ways is for use by researchers, universities, anthropologists, sociologists and extremely required by our enemies to devise cultural strategies against us. The archive is of immense national significance. If monetized the value is beyond calculations.” Uxi Mufti continues.
He further elaborates that there is indubitable evidence that this sensitive folkloric material was given away without the permission of the government to foreign institutions including our neighboring countries (India) and also to a web tv channel, maatitv.com which is the hub of anti-Pakistan propaganda through culture. They work against the culture and society of Pakistan to defame Islam and the real identity of Pakistan. They are commissioned and funded by foreign core countries.
“ The Intellectual Cultural Rights to our Archives rests with the government of Pakistan and no individual can be allowed to remove, give away or take away this valuable archival national data. No one can be allowed to plunder our precious cultural heritage or to give it away abroad. There have been two sham inquiries against Dr Fouzia Saeed the present DG, PNCA who is accountable for the missing hard disks and instrumental in stealing digital data of Lok Virsa Museum Archives. There is also incontestable evidence of Corruption and Malpractices committed in the pretext of digitalization of Lok Virsa Cultural Archive but the inquiries against Dr Fouzia Saeed were hushed up by the concerned ministry.” He emphasizes.
Uxi Mufti says in his letter that I as the founder of the Museum and the Archive had to step in 15 years after retirement at the senior age of 80 to appeal to you through the national press.
He has requested the Prime Minister to constitute and order re-inquiry into the affair. The following first hand witnesses of theft and transfer to foreign agencies must be part of the inquiry in order to bring out the facts:
Fouzia Saeed’s point of view has already come and published – we have also copied here – if she shares more , we will publish it – Tazeen Akhtar Editor