April 3, 2006	Monday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 4, 1427

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LARKANA, April 2: A master plan for Moenjodaro will be ready by June for conservation of the ancient site and for building a complete replica. Talking to Dawn at Moenjodaro on Friday, site director Qasim Ali Qasim said that the plan would be carried out in 10 years at a cost of Rs600 million.

He said that the ECNEC was expected to give a go-ahead for the plan.

He said that four acres would be used for constructing the replica of Moenjodaro.

He said that professionals, representatives of the Sindh government and experts from the Indus School of Art and Architecture would be given representation about execution of the plan.

He said that already some work had been undertaken at the site to prepare the ground work for the plan’s first phase.

The federal ministry of culture was contacted to release about Rs7.6 million from savings of the department of archaeology and the National Fund for Moenjodaro (NFM).

He expected that the fund would be released in the first week of April 2006.

Replying to a question about the fate of handing over 129 archaeological sites to the Sindh culture department, he said that the Sindh government had delayed in submitting the plan to the prime minister and that was the only reason of delay.

The plan was due to be submitted with the prime minister on February 18 in a meeting called for the purpose but the Sindh government submitted it on February 23, which delayed the process of handing over sites to Sindh, he said.

Replying to a question about funds taken away by UNESCO, he said that the federal government had approached the director general of UNESCO for returning funds to the tune of $6,62,000 for it was exclusively meant to undertaking conservation and preservation work at Moenjodaro.

The Japan Trust Fund and UNDP were key contributors, he said, and added that Pakistan’s share was $14.1 million while that of UNESCO’s $9.2 million.

The question is when funds were exclusively for Moenjodaro then why they had been taken away by UNESCO and that was why he disclosed that the federal secretary culture had written to the director general of UNESCO to returning funds.

He said that 27 dismissed workers connected with abandoned ground water scheme had been re-appointed and they would get salaries from January 2005 for which the federal secretary had promised to them during his visit to the site.

“We have received a fax to this effect” Mr Qasim said and added that now they would perform as daily wagers in the Moenjodaro Conservation and Research Cell.

Mohammed Amin Qureshi, and Ali Haidar were also present on the occasion.