LAHORE, Jan 25: The smuggling of antiquities out of the country is continuing without any hindrance. The recent smuggling of the Gandhara period's 33 articles
, including Buddha figurines, to the US once again underscores the need to set up separate offices of the archaeology department at all the country's dry and airports to check the menace.
Customs officials usually succeed in detecting those consignments of antiques about which they get information. Most of the consignments reach their destination with the alleged connivance of the department's officials.
The Customs had reportedly detected during the last decade not more than eight consignments carrying valuable antiques, which included statues of Buddha, prehistoric human figurines, animal carving, pottery, terra cotta and World War II weapons.
Surprisingly, not a single person or a gang involved in the smuggling had been rounded up during the period. The antiquities are mostly stolen from Taxila in the Punjab and Mehrgarh in Balochistan. The archaeological site of Mehrgarh, spreading over some 250 hectares on the west bank of the Bolan River, is said be one of the oldest human settlements on earth.
It contains the earliest evidence of the domestication of plants and animals in South Asia and the beginning of sedentary lifestyle. It represents the best site for understanding the changing relationships between humans, plants and animals.
Furthermore, the development of early food production and the creation of semi-sedimentary settlements at Mehrgarh laid the subsistence and social base from which the Indus cities emerged.
The exposed structures and buildings within the excavation trenches have been covered with plastic sheets. There is no conservation plants and hardly any one deputed to look after the open excavated trenches.
The Gandhara sculptures are found in Taxila, Swat, Mardan and Peshawar. Replicas of antiques have also been prepared in the NWFP and Balochistan. According to the Antiquity Act 1975, a replica can't be made without the permission of the federal archaeology department.
Similarly, the section 26 of the act says: "No person shall export any antiquity except under licence to be granted by the department's director-general." An archaeology department official admitted that the antiquities and replicas were exported to foreign countries, especially Japan and USA through Dubai.
"Dubai is considered to be a safe heaven for exporters of antiquities because its law does not impose any check on the illegal export of antiquities. It has been a transitory place to export the stolen antiques," he revealed.
The recent smuggling of the Gandhara-period objects to the USA were also exported through Dubai. The department, he said, had to face problems in recovering the stolen antiquities from other countries because it hardly maintained the documentation of the antiquities the country possessed.
According to the United Nations Convention on the Protection of Cultural and National Heritage, a country can't establish its claim on stolen antiquities unless it presents the proof of documentation.
The official said there was no check on illegal excavation due to shortage of staff. The check on illegal digging at various sites of the country was not possible without the help of the district governments, he added.
Besides, the Customs hardly invited the archaeology department officials for checking the suspected consignment. He suggested that at least three to four officials of the department should be placed at each dry and airport in the country to stop smuggling.
