March, 16 2005	Wednesday	5 Safar 1426

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window).

PESHAWAR, March 15: The federal Department of Archaeology, controlling the monuments and archaeological sites in the country, has agreed to decentralize its powers to the provincial archaeology departments, sources told Dawn here on Monday.

At a recent consultative meeting held in Islamabad, a committee comprising representatives from four provinces unanimously agreed to a proposal that the powers of the federal archaeology department should be decentralized.

Sources said that the committee has also decided that the federal Archaeology Department should have only an advisory status. And it would have the responsibility to stop the illegal trade of artefacts and antiquity, issue licences to international scholars for excavations, look into the affairs of the National Museum, Karachi, and archaeological laboratories as well as training institutes.

The committee headed by federal director general of archaeology also proposed at the occasion that members from four provinces should supervise and coordinate the affairs at the national level to ensure better performance of the department.

“Giving the control of the monuments and archaeological sites to provinces is not enough, funds and resources should also be diverted to the provinces otherwise this responsibility will become a liability on the provinces”, said an official of the concerned department.

The decentralization would only help the provinces to go ahead with excavations without any hindrance from the centre. The ongoing projects could be carried out without unnecessary interference from the centre, the sources said.

“NWFP has directorate of Archaeology and Museums but it was not fully authorize to excavate, to preserve monuments at the historical sites”, said Prof Ihsan Ali, the director of Archaeology and Museums, NWFP.

At the moment there was only one conservator with the NWFP directorate of Archaeology and Museums.” Just two months ago the directorate recruited two conservators”, Prof Ihsan infomred.

Another source said that archaeology department of Punjab has already taken over the Shalimar Gardens and Balahisar Fort even before the decentralization process. The archaeology department of Punjab had already taken more than 100 staff from the federal archaeology department so NWFP should not be deprived of resources and staff.

“Experts (conservationists) should be provided to the NWFP archaeology department”, sources said.