On Saturday, Karachi saw the debut of an online museum dedicated to historic vehicles. Owners of antique automobiles from all around the country attended the event at the Quaid-e-Azam House Museum.
Karim Chhapra, the owner of Quaid-e-1924 Azam’s coach-built Rolls Royce Roadster, was among the visitors. According to Chhapra, there is a need to promote historic vehicles in Pakistan because they are an important part of the country’s legacy. He stated the following:
“We the collectors of these cars had even been promised land for the purpose of having a classic cars museum in Karachi, which never happened. So since we don’t have the land, we can at least have an online museum.
Another classic automobile collector, Liaquat Malik, believes that Pakistan should actively promote these historic symbols in order to depict the country and its past in a favourable light.
The museum’s owner, Shoaib Qureshi, said that he had this idea during the initial wave of COVID-19 two and a half years ago. He went on to say:
“We often do classic car shows to share our hobby and our beautiful cars with the general public but we wanted a single platform for this purpose where most of our cars could be showcased. This is the first Pakistan online museum for antique cars where we can show the best of these cars in not just our country but also to the world.
Among the historic icons on display were a 1930 Cadillac V16, a 1926 Renault, a 1930 Packard, a 1935 Chevrolet Master, a 1949 Lincoln Continental V12, a 1954 Austin Healey, a 1958 Corvette, a 1963 Porsche 356, a 1966 Aston Martin DB6, and a 1966 Amphicar.
