By Sunday evening, the news was official: Nasreen Askari, the legendary curator and co-founder of the Mohatta Palace Museum, has formally stepped down. For nearly three decades, Askari has been the “beating heart” of this pink-stoned landmark, and her departure marks the definitive end of an era for Pakistan’s art world.
From “Miss Havisham’s Mansion” to a Cultural Icon
When Askari took over in 1998, the Mohatta Palace wasn’t the pristine heritage site we know today. She famously described it as looking like something out of Dickens’ Great Expectations, overgrown with weeds, littered with garbage, and crumbling into the salt air of Clifton. Under her watch, the “garbage-strewn ruin” became the gold standard for museum curation in South Asia.
She curated landmark exhibitions that defined Karachi’s identity, including:
Treasures of the Talpurs (which brought rare royal artifacts to the public for the first time).
Sadequain: The Holy Sinner (the definitive retrospective of Pakistan’s greatest muralist).
Jewel in the Crown (exploring Karachi’s colonial history).
The Next Chapter: ‘The Haveli’
Askari isn’t just retiring; she’s pivoting. On this day, she officially confirmed that her focus has shifted to her new, deeply personal project: The Haveli: A Museum of Textiles.
Housed in a modernist villa in KDA, the new museum features over 1,000 pieces from her personal collection, gathered over 50 years. It is Pakistan’s first dedicated textile museum, designed to preserve the “storytelling through stitch” found in the clothes of rural women from Sindh and KP.
Source: The Guardian
Passing the Torch
The Board of Trustees has announced that Sumera Naveed, who has been part of the museum’s leadership since 2002, will step up to lead Mohatta into its next chapter. While Naveed brings a fresh, modern operational perspective, Askari will remain on as a “Consultant Emeritus” to ensure the Palace’s standards never slip.
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