26 December 2004	Sunday	13 Ziqa'ad 1425

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NEW YORK, Dec 25: Pakistan embassy officials in New York are anxiously waiting for word from Islamabad to ascertain whether the valuable Pakistani artefacts seized by US Customs are in fact part of country's national heritage, officials said here on Saturday.

Embassy's Deputy Chief of Mission Mohammed Sadiq told Dawn that American Customs officials suspect that the valuable artefacts could have been of Afghanistan origin .

"But we have asked them to hold that judgment until we get positive identification from Islamabad," Mr Sadiq said adding "we have very little time left to get back to the US authorities in order to request them to confiscate the container, if in fact it contains art objects of national heritage from Pakistan."

The United States has agreement with Pakistan government to stop smuggling of objects of national heritage, but the Afghan government has no such agreement to date.

Consul General Haroon Shaukat on Saturday said: "We have sent pictures of the several Buddha heads and busts which are of formidable size and other antiques found in the container."

Urgent messages were sent to the foreign secretary, and the secretary of culture to respond urgently to verify the origin of the goods so that a formal request for interdiction could be filed with the US State Department and the Homeland Security.

Mr Shaukat said that the consignee of the goods was cooperating with the US authorities to help in the investigations.