500 Sufi Saints in Lahore

By Hina Farooq - Daily Times - Lahore, Pakistan
Friday, September 28, 2007

Lahore: The City Museum (Tollinton Market), which was scheduled to open for public in September, has still not been opened.

Culture secretary Ashfaq Gondal told Daily Times on Friday that a meeting to be held on Monday was expected to discuss the delay in the opening of the museum.

Museum director Faqir Saifuddin had presented a plan that had almost, but not yet been finalised. Saifuddin, a former member of the museum committee, had proposed making the museum a place that would “educate the younger generation about the history of Lahore”.

He said the museum’s aim was to teach visitors more about Lahore and give them a certain “level of satisfaction”. The plan stated that the museum would be divided into three major segments.

The third would have 14 sub-sections, which would be 14 chapters of Lahore’s history. The first sub-section would narrate the history of Lahore through the ages. The second sub-section would display the old Lahori lifestyle and the traditional games played here. The third chapter would be named ‘Historical and Important places of Lahore’ and would feature documentaries on various historic places in the city.

The fourth chapter would be titled ‘Sufi Saints of Lahore’ and would have information on 500 Sufi Saints with links to the city.

The officials said a second plan had been presented, but that too had not been finalised. The plan proposed dividing the museum according to various ages in the history of Lahore.

Tollinton Market was constructed in 1864 as a temporary building to hold exhibitions of industrial arts. Later, it was handed over to the Lahore Municipal Corporation.

Since 1894, it had been used as a vegetable and beef market. In 2004, the market was renovated and renamed City Museum.