TAXILA: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) Pakistan’s Country Director Patricia McPhillips on Tuesday said her organisation was keen to support Pakistan in preserving tangible and intangible cultural heritage from dances to languages from education to women empowerment and from ancient sites to museums.

She was speaking at the inaugural ceremony of a five-day ‘Gandhara Festival’ which was inaugurated by her.

The festival is aimed at promoting cultural pluralism through the exhibition, panel discussions, site visits and showcasing local crafts. Federal Parliamentary Secretary for National History and Literary Heritage MNA Ghazala Saifi, Archaeology Punjab Director General Mohammad Ilyas Gill, Islamabad-based diplomats and heritage lovers were also present on the occasion.

Ms McPhillips said Pakistan was equipped with rich cultural potential and Unesco had taken a number of steps for its preservation and promotion.

Country director inaugurates five-day Gandhara Festival

Unesco, while focusing on protection of world heritage sites in Pakistan in collaboration with national authorities, has carried out a number of conservation projects at various sites from Gandhara to Indus civilisation and Mughal-era monuments, she said.

The country director said major modalities involved in all these interventions focused on capacity building of national staff through training workshops, carrying out site studies, engaging international expertise, reinforcing and establishing research and documentation centres and following international standards of conservation and protection.

Federal Parliamentary Secretary for National History and Literary Heritage Ghazala Saifi said the present government had taken various steps to promote cultural heritage and tap religious tourism potential.

She said South Korea had announced that it would release a grant of $4 million to preserve and promote Gandhara Buddhist heritage and in this connection an MoU was likely to be signed soon.

She said through this grant not only ancient sites would be preserved but facilities would be provided to attract tourists.

Archaeology Punjab Director General Mohammad Ilyas Gill said the Punjab government had decided to start work on 10 archaeological protection and restoration projects during the current financial year.

He said Shalamar Bagh, Taxila Museum, Rohtas Fort and Lahore Fort Museum were on the list for restoration work, adding that basic amenities and facilities would be added to attract tourists to the historically rich and important sites across the province.

Patricia McPhillips also inaugurated the Unesco-funded website of Taxila Museum under which tourists would take virtual tours of ancient sites.

Published in Dawn, October 6th, 2021