IT was the annoyance of a president that led to the completion of the National Art Gallery in Islamabad. As news records from the time reveal, soon after Gen Pervez Musharraf moved to his presidential offices, he saw from that high political perch a half-completed carcass of a building. Annoyed at this abandoned protuberance, he asked his staff what it was. He learnt that it was the long-planned and still unrealised National Art Gallery.

It was originally envisioned and approved in 1973 during the tenure of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, only to be abandoned when Gen Zia took power later that decade. A building was finally commissioned in the 1990s during Benazir Bhutto’s first tenure as prime minister. It was beset with furtive starts and dramatic stops as Pakistani politics trundled along its course of civilian and military rule, with rulers who had differing commitments to the preservation and presentation of art.

As he told the audience at the gala opening of the gallery in August 2007, once he knew about the project, Musharraf immediately summoned Naeem Pasha, the project’s ever-patient architect, and allotted him the $9 million required for its completion. In this way, the gallery became a reality, at least in a physical sense.

According to reports, when it was inaugurated, the collection at the gallery was carefully and boldly curated. Artists from all genres were represented. Many pieces poked fun at the military but were nevertheless displayed, even as president Musharraf walked through the building.

It was in the estimation of the New York Times (and many others in the foreign press) an impressive and bold representation of Pakistan via its creative depth and diversity. From the design of the building, to the curatorial work of the collection, the gallery was declared an emblem of Pakistan’s promise.

But promises in Pakistan are fragile things and what one ruler constructs and inaugurates, another may neglect or refuse to tolerate. Such has been the fate of the National Art Gallery. Touted as a giant step forward for Pakistani art, the building now languishes, with many sections apparently prey to dereliction. In its heyday, not too distant from the pitiable present, the gallery housed a permanent collection, its contents revealing to would-be artists, and to visitors in general, the visual genealogy of a nation. It was also a venue that held regular exhibits featuring the work of contemporary artists.

Not much of that is happening today. In fact, many of the items in the gallery’s permanent collection are no longer on display. 

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