ISLAMABAD: Queen Maxima of the Netherlands arrived in Islamabad on a three-day visit to oversee a financial inclusion initiative by Pakistan’s central bank, and met with the foreign minister on Monday.
Queen Máxima has been serving as the UN Secretary General’s Special Advocate (UNSGSA) for Inclusive Finance for Development since 2009. This is her second visit to Pakistan after an earlier visit in February 2016.
While appreciating the UNSGA’s dedication to promote financial inclusion, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said during a meeting at the foreign office, that the royal visit would provide greater impetus to ongoing initiatives in the country. In addition, a select group of civil society members working on the financial inclusion and development of women in Pakistan were present at the meeting.
Earlier, the visiting royal chaired a meeting on financial inclusion in Islamabad during which she noted Pakistan’s advancement in the field, but said “more needs to be done,” according to state-run Radio Pakistan reported.
Addressing the gathering with representatives of UN agencies, World Bank and the Asian Development Bank in the audience, the queen stressed the need for use of technology to bring improvement in the financial inclusion.
During her visit, the queen will attend the launch of Micro Payment Gateway, an initiative by the State Bank of Pakistan aimed at reducing the costs of small payments and promoting financial inclusion.
Inclusive finance for development is one of the government’s key priorities.
Queen Máxima is also expected to meet with President Arif Alvi and Prime Minister Imran Khan, as well as a range of stakeholders from the public and private sectors.
She is actively engaged in promoting access to financial services at a reasonable cost, with the aim of improving economic and social development opportunities in countries across the world.
Dutch queen arrives in Pakistan on three-day visit
Dutch queen arrives in Pakistan on three-day visit
- The queen met with the Foreign Minister and civil society members
- This is the queen’s second trip to Pakistan in four years
Pakistan turns to immersive technology to reimagine ancient Gandhara
- New gallery uses artificial intelligence and 3D visuals to present Buddhist heritage
- Visitors can explore archaeological sites digitally rather than through static displays
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.”
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.
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.
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.
