LARKANA, Jan 2: The director of southern circle of archaeology, Qasim Ali Qasim, was entrusted with new responsibility of national site director of Moenjodaro, replacing Safdar Khan Pathan.

The department of archaeology has also promoted curator of Moenjodaro, Mr Shamsuddin Jatoi, and made him chief of sub-regional office in Taxila.

Federal Culture Secretary Syed Jalil Abbas during his visit to Moenjodaro on Sunday said that instead of executive board of Moenjodaro and its technical committee, the department of archaeology would solely undertake preservation and conservation work at the site.

Ali Hyder, assistant curator of Moenjodaro told this correspondent that the secretary visited the site along with US archaeologist Mark Kenyor and reviewed the conservation work.

He held meeting with the staff and expressed his dismay over the conservation work.

The secretary asked the site director to go to his original posting in Taxila. The secretary asked Mr Hyder to take over as the site in-charge of Moenjodaro. He took over as the in-charge of the site on Monday.

Sources in the department of archaeology told Dawn that the director general of the archaeology department had sent a comprehensive report to the federal government indicating dissatisfactory work carried out at the site during days of Safdar Khan as its director.

The US archaeologist had brought with him a plan of constructing a new three-storey building of museum at Moenjodaro, the sources said.

It was learnt that the federal secretary culture had a meeting with Sindh culture secretary Mehtab Akbar Rashdi and discussed handing over of the Moenjodaro site to the culture department of Sindh.

The federal government was ready to handover the staff and extend generous funding for the project, the sources said.