LAHORE, Nov 28: The Punjab chief secretary has once again chaired a meeting on the transfer of the management of historical places and monuments to the province — a subject on which the federal culture ministry is giving a cold response.

The transfer of the management of the monuments to the provinces including the Punjab was desired by President Gen Pervez Musharraf. But the needful has not yet been done despite the willingness of all the provinces to accept the responsibility due to the opposition by the culture ministry which at present regulates the monuments.

Initially, the Punjab had expressed its willingness to accept the offer made for the better management of the monuments but Sindh, Balochistan and the NWFP also followed the suit in the last meeting held in Islamabad on Oct 18.

Sources said on Wednesday that the chief secretary held the meeting on Tuesday and it remained inconclusive because of the lack of any response by the culture ministry.

It was later learnt that the culture ministry had not so far submitted the summary to the president which it wanted to move after the Oct 18 meeting to seek guidance on matters which in its view could create problems after the transfer of the monuments to the provinces, they said.

“This is disgusting and a clear violation of the directive by the president, “the sources said, indicating that though “we do not have any hope of getting the monuments, chances are that the province will agitate the matter with the federal government at the higher level.”

The federal culture ministry had pointed out certain legal and technical complications which it thought could create hurdles in the way of the transfer of the monuments and therefore required a settlement before a final decision by the authorities.

These included the reluctance of international agencies like Unesco to interact with provincial governments instead of the federal government which was a signatory to their conventions and agreements.

The ministry had indicated that it would obtain views of Unesco on the proposed decentralization especially with a reference to the sites placed on the World Heritage List. —Intikhab Hanif