Competition announced to project positive image of Pakistan
Competition announced to project positive image of Pakistan/node/1327161/pakistan
Competition announced to project positive image of Pakistan
In this file photo, Pakistan’s army spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor speaks with media representatives during a press conference in Rawalpindi on April 17, 2017. (AFP)
Competition announced to project positive image of Pakistan
Post a positive photo of Pakistan and win a prize
Pakistan has taken a beating internationally and domestically and needs to build a positive image, according to the head of a national security think tank
ISLAMABAD: The director general of the Pakistani military’s media wing on Saturday launched a social media competition in which people who project a positive image of the country by posting inspiring photos could win prizes.
“Post a pic projecting positive image of Pakistan here. Best 3 posts will get a prize,” Maj. Gen. Asif Ghafoor tweeted.
“Request NO politics, No foreign enmity! Any negative post from anyone/ abroad be ignored. Starts now till 11:59 p.m. on night 30th Jun.”
Thousands of people have responded so far, posting images of interfaith harmony, sports icons, humanitarian workers, ordinary Pakistanis, beautiful landscapes, emerging scientists and police personnel.
Dear all. Let’s have an activity. Post a pic projecting positive image of Pakistan here. Best 3 posts will get a prize. Request NO politics, No foreign enmity! Any negative post from anyone/ abroad be ignored. Starts now till 11:59 pm on night 30th Jun 18.
Command Eleven, an Islamabad-based national security think tank that is viewed as closely associated with the military, said it is Ghafoor’s “personal initiative.”
Khalid Muhammed, director general of Command Eleven, told Arab News: “It doesn’t look good coming from the official army ID (@OfficialDGISPR).”
He said: “We’ve spent time talking to the army about taking similar initiatives to strengthen Pakistan’s image against the wave of negativity that’s spread by the media and analysts.”
He added: “Pakistan has taken a beating internationally and domestically. We need an image overhaul.”
Caption: Maj. Gen. Asif Ghafoor on Saturday launched a social media competition to project a positive image of Pakistan
ISLAMABAD: At the Islamabad Museum, history no longer sits quietly behind glass.
In September 2025, the museum introduced Pakistan’s first Digital Immersive Gallery, an experiment in how ancient civilizations can be narrated in the age of artificial intelligence, 3D projection and virtual environments. Developed in collaboration with the Korea Heritage Agency, Pakistan’s Department of Archaeology and the National Heritage and Culture Division, the gallery marks a shift from object-centered displays to experience-based storytelling.
Rather than beginning with labels and timelines, the gallery opens with movement, sound and light. Visitors are invited to step into a reconstructed visual world shaped around Gandhara, one of South Asia’s most influential yet often under-explained civilizations that developed across what is now northwestern Pakistan and parts of eastern Afghanistan and later played a foundational role in the spread of Buddhism beyond the subcontinent.
“We have shown here in our Immersive Gallery how Buddhism flourished here, how it was introduced, how it declined and how it shifted to China, Korea and Japan from here,” Dr. Abdul Ghafoor, Deputy Director at the Department of Archaeology and Museums, told Arab News.
“In order to make it, the content developed by Korea has fully used AI and IT,” he continued. “AI and IT are common in Korea and other developed countries, but we have done it for the first time in Pakistan.”
A picture taken on December 30, 2025, shows women watching Gandhara history at the Digital Immersive Gallery in Islamabad, Pakistan. (AN photo)
Gandhara flourished between the first century BCE and the fifth century CE in this region, which served as a cultural crossroads, shaped by Greek, Central Asian, Persian and South Asian influences.
It was here that artists first began depicting the Buddha in human form, a visual language that later traveled along trade routes to Central Asia, China, Korea and Japan. This transmission of ideas, beliefs and artistic styles forms the core narrative of the immersive gallery.
“Inside the gallery, visitors are drawn into a world of interactive experiences, heritage documentaries they can zoom in and out of, Gandhara artifacts explored up close and photo zones where they can capture themselves against Pakistan’s most iconic sites,” Muhammad Azeem, Project Director at the Department of Archaeology and Museums, said.
A picture taken on December 30, 2025, shows map of Gandhara civilization at the Digital Immersive Gallery in Islamabad, Pakistan. (AN photo)
While Gandhara anchors the gallery, the experience expands outward to place it within a longer and wider historical arc. One section is dedicated to Pakistan’s six UNESCO World Heritage Sites, offering visitors a compressed journey across centuries and regions.
“The main hall takes it further with a fully immersive 3D journey,” Azeem added. “Each seven-minute segment transports audiences to treasures like Mohenjo-Daro, Makli Necropolis, Lahore’s Shalimar Gardens and Sheesh Mahal, and the historic landscapes of Taxila and Takht-i-Bahi, making the past feel vivid, unforgettable and alive.”
For many visitors, the gallery’s appeal lies in how it lowers the barrier to understanding. Instead of long explanatory panels, history is introduced through visuals, motion and guided narrative.
“I saw different historical sites on big screens which was very exciting for me,” Fatima Nawaz, a government employee, said. “After that, I watched a complete documentary in the gallery, which was about 20 minutes long, and in which different historical sites related to Gandhara were highlighted.”
“Overall, it was a very good experience,” she added.
A picture taken on December 30, 2025, shows visitors watching Gandhara history at the Digital Immersive Gallery in Islamabad, Pakistan. (AN photo)
Researchers see the initiative as part of a broader global shift in how museums function.
“My topic is Cultural Heritage Museum, and with this research, I am studying and visiting museums,” Abdul Khaliq, an M.Phil. student at Quaid-e-Azam University, said. “One thing I have not seen in Pakistan before is the shift toward virtual reality.”
He added that it was a good step while calling the immersive gallery “very educational and gives us a lot to learn.”
For the officials involved in the project, the gallery is a starting point rather than a finished model.
“The response we have received from the public in Islamabad makes me feel that this should be done in all the museums, in all four provinces of Pakistan,” Dr. Ghafoor, the senior archaeology department official, said. “This is because it can make it easier to follow history.”
“I think such immersive galleries should be there in all the museums,” he added.
