KARACHI, April 18: Experts at a seminar on the plight of Sindh heritage sites unanimously demanded that the provincial government establish a separate department for conservation of archaeological sites and urban heritage clusters to effectively safeguard monuments, some of which are on the list of world heritage sites.

The demand was made at a seminar on Sindh heritage organized jointly by the NED University’s Department of Architecture and Planning and the National Secretariat of the International Council of Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) at the university’s City Campus on Wednesday.

Renowned architect and planner Arif Hasan spoke about the plight of Sindh’s world class heritage sites, and said the situation would get worse if the conscious segment of society remained complacent and did not exert pressure on the government.

“It is (the) responsibility of all of us to go further with our maximum potentials to force the government to develop political will for safeguarding such a huge treasure,” Mr Hasan said.

He said the government would not allocate funds for conservation and protection of heritage sites unless scholarly elements of society approached the authorities for the requisite funds.

He said many of the archaeological sites had disappeared, while many others were fast vanishing with everyone in and outside the government playing a spectator’s role.He said many of the old and ancient shrines had been completely demolished and new ones were built in the name of restoration and development, with much of the damage being done by the Auqaf Department.

Similarly, Mr Hasan said that the old towns, bazaars, villages and neighbourhoods had been deprived of their past grandeur as the towns of Shikarpur, Sukkur, Rohri and parts of Hyderabad and Karachi, which had splendid heritage treasures, had suffered a perpetual decline and were facing environmental degradation as well.

He said growth in population and markets coupled with turning of residential neighbourhoods into commercial areas had caused a great deal of damage to those localities.

Dr Kaleemullah Lashari, a known archaeologist and Director General (Special Projects and Initiatives), Government of Sindh, said the age-old conservation manual and the ineffective Antiquities Act merited positive amendments empowering everyone in Sindh to own the heritage, so that everyone could lodge a complaint against violations of the Act. At present, he said, the Antiquities Act entitled only the director general of the archaeology department to lodge a complaint against any irregularity or violation.

In his detailed presentation about the state of heritage sites in the province, he concluded that the situation had worsened to the extent that no heritage site was protected from plunderers.

He cited the examples of the complete demolition of the centuries old monument at Masjid Manzilgah in Sukkur in 2002 and the latest casualty of the Jain Temple in Thar, which developed fatal cracks during the deadly 2001 earthquake in neighbouring Indian state of Gujarat. No one took notice of it until it collapsed last year.

According to him, ancient sites like Kahujodaro, Umerkot, Jain Temple, Pir Lakho and Makli had either been ruined completely or had suffered colossal damage.

Besides, the ICOMOS also organized a photographic and poster exhibition. These works were prepared by NED students of architecture under the supervision of faculty members.