03 November 2004	Wednesday	19 Ramazan 1425

LAHORE, Nov 2: The Standing Committee on Culture has approved the draft of the Punjab Heritage Foundation Act 2004 with certain amendments. The draft act will be presented in the provincial assembly in the next session for enactment.

The fund has been established to promote preservation, conservation and restoration of Punjab heritage through technical and financial assistance.

Like the National Heritage Fund, its major chunk will be spent on the conservation of 244 provincial monuments, including the Lahore Fort and the Shalamar Gardens.

The fund will acquire material or cultural property on lease for the purpose. It will strengthen coordination between international, national, provincial and regional organizations involved in conservation and preservation of cultural heritage.

The fund will undertake and promote research and arrange material for publication of periodicals.

Resources for the fund will be provided by federal, provincial and district governments. Foreign and local donor agencies will send contributions and income will be generated from movable and immovable properties. The amount credited to the fund shall not lapse at the end of a financial year.

Management, overall control and supervision of the affairs of the fund shall vest in the Board of Governors (BoG). The chief minister will be chairman of the fund while chief secretary will be its vice-president.

Finance, local government, auqaf and culture secretaries and the Lahore Museum director will be its members. Besides, eight people, three of them MPAs, shall be appointed its members for a period of two years. The culture secretary will also be its treasurer and secretary.

The members of the board shall not be entitled to any remuneration or honorarium.

The board may prepare and approve certain projects besides framing policies. It may also form committees for carrying out its objectives and also delegate its powers to them.

There shall be an executive committee of the fund to exercise executive functions in accordance with provisions of the proposed act.

The committee will comprise finance, tourism and culture secretaries, the Punjab Archaeology Department and Parks and Horticulture Authority heads, and the District Coordination Officer. Four people, two of them from the penal of experts, shall be its members for not less than two years.

The function of the committee to monitor and execute projects approved by the board. The committee may delegate any of its powers or functions to any of its member (s) or constitute sub-committee (s) for the purpose.

The Board and the Executive Committee will follow the instructions of the government in utilization of funds.

The standing committee, however, has amended that there should be another committee whose functions be within the revenue limits of Lahore district.

This committee may include people nominated by the board provided it may change its composition from time to time.

It may, however, be mentioned that the Punjab Archaeology Department had prepared the draft of the Punjab Heritage Cess Fund in 1991 but it could not be enacted following the dissolution of the assembly. Since then there has been no such fund for the preservation of the heritage.