May 06, 2008	Tuesday	Rabi-us-Sani 29, 1429

KARACHI, May 5: The fate of the recently-created department of antiquities hangs in the balance with reports that the Sindh chief minister is making up his mind about the very requirement of the department.

According to reliable sources, Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah will soon take a decision about whether the department is needed or not.

The department of antiquities was created by the Sindh caretaker government. Now the elected government, after taking charge of affairs, has started revising all the decisions taken by the caretaker set-up.

The government believes that the caretaker cabinet had exceeded its jurisdiction by taking decisions on certain matters. The sources pointed out that the mandate given to the caretaker set-up was restricted to the holding of general elections and disposing of matters pertaining to the day-to-day government affairs during its brief tenure.

The decision like establishing a new department appeared to be a long-term issue and, thus, beyond the caretakers’ mandate, they observed.

The sources recalled that the process of establishing the department of antiquities was started a couple of years back when the federal government, under the devolution plan, announced that all archaeological sites controlled and managed by the federal government through its archaeology department would be handed over to the provincial governments.

Since the Sindh government did not have an organisational arrangement in place capable of managing more than 125 archaeological sites existing in the province and supposed to be handed over to it, a plan was prepared and a summary to this effect was forwarded to the then chief minister, Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim, for the creation of the department of antiquities.

However, the sources added, Dr Arbab did not agree with the proposal and returned the summary without an approval. The proposal was again forwarded to the chief minister along with a note highlighting the importance of the heritage and archaeology. The summary was pending action until the caretaker government took over the government’s affairs.

The sources said that while clearing the backlog piled up in the CM’s Secretariat, the caretaker government disposed of many matters and took decisions. Among the decisions was the establishment of the new department with immediate effect.

The sources further stated that the caretaker set-up also approved proposals for the launching of some development schemes like restoration of nearly 1,000-year-old Jain temples at Bhodesar near Nagar Parkar, restoration of the Mukhi House, etc. However, work on these schemes could not be kicked off.

Responding to the Dawn queries, Dr Kaleem Lashari, secretary of the antiquities department, confirmed that the fate of his department would be decided soon.

He, however, advocated establishment of the department, staying it must exist to manage the historical, heritage and archaeology sites once they were handed over to Sindh. Its existence could ensure availability of trained and skilled staff by the time the process of transfer was completed, he argued.

He said that his department was also supposed to undertake surveys and exploration activities to discover heritage and archaeology sites.

Dr Lashari said the department planned to establish museums to put on display new discoveries and those artefacts already discovered but dumped in stores.