PESHAWAR, Sept 3: The sub-committee on the decentralization of the federal archaeology department will meet in Quetta on Saturday next to work out a plan for the proposed transfer of monuments from the Centre to the provinces, sources said.

The sources said the six-member committee headed by a senior archaeologist from the NWFP Prof Farid Khan would discuss the modalities to hand over possession of 300 sites from the Centre to the federating units.

The sub-committee, which held its first meeting in Islamabad on Aug 9, is required to submit its report within two months. Equal representation has been given to the four provinces.

Despite the fact that both the president and the prime minister had given their assent to the decentralization process, some elements were creating hurdles to resist the federal government’s move.

“The provinces are unanimous over the decentralization of the federal archaeology department,” an official said, adding that in the previous meeting of the committee some officials vehemently opposed transfer of monuments to the provinces.

In the previous meeting it was proposed that the approved allocated budget would be proportionally distributed among the provinces according to the National Finance Commission award.

The provinces also suggested that a committee at the federal level should be constituted to supervise at the national level the world heritage sites and monuments.

The sources said that in view of the fact that Balochistan had been neglected in the past the committee had proposed to give additional grants for excavation and preservation of monuments in the province.

Archaeologists said monuments of Islamic and pre-historic periods had been found in Balochistan. A French team in collaboration with the federal archaeology department had been excavating a site in Mehargarh for the last 30 years. While the federal government had no museum in the province.