November 24, 2008	Monday	Ziqa'ad 25, 1429

KARACHI, Nov 23: The re-survey of the Makli necropolis – protected under the federal Antiquities Act and declared a world heritage site by the United Nations – that was to be carried out in October has not begun so far, raising doubts about whether the government departments will ever be able to complete the exercise.

The necropolis issue came to light when early last month, its curator approached the Thatta district administration, complaining that the protected land was being tampered with, as one of the neighbouring landlords, Ghulam Qadir Palijo, who happens to be the father of Sindh Culture Minister Sassui Palijo, ordered the protected land to be dug up to build a check dam and drainage system.

Talking to Dawn, Sarmad Palijo, a son of Ghulam Qadir Palijo, denied that they were carrying out any activity on the archaeology department’s protected land, insisting that they owned the land on which excavation work was being carried out. He said the drain and check dam was being constructed to protect their agricultural lands and crops from the rainwater that came from the Makli necropolis, located on a higher altitude.

The issue was widely reported in the media because the person being accused was a former MPA, who, over a decade-and-a-half back, had also been blamed for carrying out a similar activity in the necropolis.

The issue was further aggravated when a media-person, who had visited the protected land for his story, was reportedly beaten up – an act which was later termed a misunderstanding and regretted by Sarmad Palijo.

After much hue and cry, the federal Archaeology Department’s Director-General, Dr Fazaldad Kakar, came from Islamabad and visited the site to get the first-hand information in the second week of October.

Expressing dissatisfaction over the survey conducted by the local district administration, the director-general ordered that the Makli necropolis be re-surveyed and over 912 acres, which were declared protected under the Antiquities Act, be demarcated within “a couple of weeks” with the help of the land settlement department and the maps of the protected area available with the archaeology department.

He said that once the re-survey was completed and the protected area of the graveyard was marked, only then a buffer zone, which surrounded the core protected area as prescribed in the Antiquities Act and where activities like excavation could not be carried out, would be demarcated. He said it would be easy to decide after the land’s demarcation which land was actually dug up.

The sources said that just after the director-general’s visit to the necropolis, the curator, rather than starting the re-survey exercise, wrote a letter to the Thatta district administration for re-survey. The district administration responded to him through a letter on Oct 20, asking him to furnish a sketch on Deh map for the area of 912 acres earmarked for the Makli Hill Monuments and also deposit the survey expenses in the treasury under the head of account “1024” land revenue settlement so that the date for demarcation may be fixed.

In this regard, the administration also referred to a letter issued by the Sindh director of settlements survey and land record, Hyderabad.

They said the slow correspondence continued as a week later the curator enclosed a sketch of the protected monuments and wrote another letter to the district administration, pointing out that the amount of charges for the demarcation of Makli graveyard had not been mentioned. The curator requested the district administration to approach the Sindh director settlements survey and land record, Hyderabad, and ask for the per acre charges of the demarcation.

The sources said the time consuming exercise of letter writing would prove futile if the departments concerned failed to complete the re-survey soon. They expressed apprehension that the issue was being pushed under the carpet since the accused was an influential person.

They said in the given situation it was all the more important to carry out the survey and complete the process immediately in order to ascertain whether the excavation and check dam construction work carried out by Mr Palijo was within the area protected under the Antiquities Act or not.

Spread over six square miles, Makli necropolis is located around 100 kilometres from Karachi on the National Highway. Said to be one of the largest cemeteries in the world, the necropolis has over half a million graves and tombs with a history of over 400 years when the Sammas, Arghuns, Turkhans and then Mughals ruled the area. The richly carved stone architecture of many of the tombs is outstanding, owing to which it has been declared a world heritage site by the United Nations.