According to the latest figures of the SBP, tourism generated a minuscule $105.4 million this year. This, as claimed by the relevant ministry, was the spendings of half a million tourists visiting the country.

Experts on the other hand, have opined that these figures were inflated on account of false premises and actually were less than $50 million or so; the difference being because of non-availability of proper accounting systems or segregation under different head of accounts and an un-regulated tourism industry.

Not withstanding the above, the fact remains that revenues generated by this important resource are much less in comparison to what tiny countries like Nepal and Maldives earn. We, however, cannot ever think of comparing ourselves to the neighbouring India or the nearby Thailand.

The situation has been further compounded after September 9, 2001 and we see that nearly no one visits Pakistan from the West, but for those touring the northern areas for mountaineering expeditious in small groups and our own diaspora settled abroad. Whatever little we see is from countries like Japan and Korea, which too are lured by our rich heritage of Buddhist relics and monasteries. Had Pakistan not been the area of ancient Buddhist civilization and were the Japanese and the Korean devoid of this faith, the position of tourism in Pakistan would have been even more dismal.

Going into details, we see that heritage is in fact the various buildings, forts, gardens, temples, monasteries, mosques and the famous caravansarais. As such, majority of the 500,000 tourists visit the country in order to see these edifices although this figure vouch-safed by the federal tourism ministry also includes a huge number of expatriates and visitors from India, who cannot ever be truly branded as genuine tourists, still this number is huge enough to make the concerned ministries/ departments do much more to ensure customer satisfaction.

What would this satisfaction be? Well this would be the actual listing of the heritage in totality, the true categorization of the same and on acceptable international lines; better if the UNESCO code is followed, availability of a true and correct history of each of the individual and combined heritage duly linked up with each other (if a connection exists) and the era/times during which it existed in its original form and during its then use, the technology adopted, the excellence achieved and the un-matched quality of the heritage.

In some of the cases, conservationists also take up efforts to make the heritage regain it's original shape and grandeur. This is then followed by steps to ensure that the conservation stays good for long periods through follow-up action and procedures whereby excessive tourism does not once again start the decay. This, probably, is the most difficult of the steps because letting the conservation stay in place is expensive and needs seriousness of all the parties involved- be those the conservationists, the managers or the custodians of the heritage or the visiting connoisseurs or tourists.

Coming to Pakistan, we see that none of the steps really have been taken up in earnest and as a consequence the heritage is crumbling fast. What could be visibly discerned in the 60's has simply vanished, as if it never existed. In 1985, through a WB sponsored loan for master planning of Multan (some say the oldest living city of the world), a listing of the Multan heritage was carried out by the Multan Development Authority (MDA).

This was probably the first comprehensive work undertaken by someone for an important area and also the first again by an agency outside the world of archaeology and survey. Enquiries from both the federal and the provincial archaeology departments revealed that the above listing was indeed comprehensive and provided a jump-start to other similar initiatives. However, just 19 years down the lane one sees many of the listed heritage missing altogether or in an even dismal state of repair.

The foremost and the biggest of the losses has been the criminal felling of the Sun temple- a tit-for-tat response to the sacrilege at the Babri Mosque. But the worst of all is that some of the antiquities have since been repaired under the garb of restoration and the process continues. Actually, restoration, renovation and repairs have all been mixed up in one big jumble- leading to a great loss in heritage. Recently exceptions were taken to the restoration work underway at the Attock Tomb situated at Kund (a place where the blue Kabul and the mighty Indus meet) on the Peshawar-Islamabad highway.

Visitors saw untrained workforce working with drawings, plans or instructions and to the surprise of all, using portland cement and ordinary sand and the so-called restoration was such that earlier seepage had been left untreated. And all this was happening when the government had earmarked a huge amount of Rs10 million for the restoration of the Attock Tomb and two other nearby sites.

Vandalism is another of the issues that assails our heritage and strangely it is seen that those required to look after these treasures are themselves in need of being looked after. Their offices are archaic in appointment, we see a great paucity is training and lastly the budgets are just enough to cater for the cost of establishment alone. There are no exchange programmes in evidence and expertise improvement is nowhere to be seen. Even imperative record of earlier expeditious, surveys and such like activity has just vanished.

Alongside, this situation is the growing strength of a class which immediately wants to encash whatever heritage is left. They would want even the Shalimar to be opened up to commercialization and available for gaudy fashion shows and juvenile cultural events. For them heritage is a step towards the making of a fast buck The PHA's effort to wrest the control of Lahore's foremost heritage for itself was an effort in that direction.

Mercifully, the control has since been transferred to the provincial archeology department and not to the PHA. It is besides the point that the new custodians, probably, would not be able to look after their latest wards.

The vision should then like all standard issues, have the short, the medium and the long term goals clearly laid out for it. The vision to complete in ten years time (it has to be compressed in this short period because any longer wait would be devastating) should again be able to mesh into the National Policy, which is clear and envisages the best in the fields of holding on to the rich heritage we possess and its fullest use to pay us in the shape of huge tourists remittances.

Experts here opine that this can reach the $2.5 billion peg (on the exchange rate of 2000) in exactly ten years, if the needed vision is formulated and implemented immediately- indeed stupendous against the present figure of $100 million or so. So much remains the potential.

Besides the above liaison between various departments, there is an urgent need to take the issue with UNESCO and arrange for the basics to the vision to be underwritten by funds there-from. It would be in addition to the efforts to include more heritage, besides the very few already there, on the World Heritage list. It would be of note to know that, at present, there are hundreds of heritage sites listed by UNESCO on the World Heritage in Danger list.

Out of these, 35 properties were recently included in accordance with Article 11(4) of the World Heritage Convention adopted by UNESCO in 1922 also contain three of Pakistan's foremost heritage, which would be the Rohtas Fort, the Shalimar Garden and the Lahore fort..

The World Heritage Convention divides the heritage into cultural and natural categories and rightly refers to the monuments, groups of building and properties with historical, aesthetic, archaeological, scientific, ethnological or anthropological value as the 'cultural heritage'.

And as an important covenant, UNESCO is bound by it's charter and the convention to encourage countries to ensure the protection of their heritage, to encourage nomination of properties for inclusion in the world heritage list (so that the whole world starts looking after it); also note the word encouragement which shows that many a heritage in the world is still to be identified as such), to encourage the setting-up of reporting systems on the state of conservation of heritage, to help in the safeguard of properties through provision of technical assistance and professional training, to provide emergency assistance for support of public awareness building activities, to encourage participation of local population in the preservation of their heritage and lastly to encourage international cooperation in conservation of heritage.

A very cogent, but presently dormant, cultural policy was issued in 1995. The policy document is detailed and fully (nearly) takes care of the various facets needed to be looked into in pursuit of the same. It in clear words, requires that the department of Archaeology will sponsor a comprehensive catalogue of various archaeological sites with maps, pictures and brief write-ups for scholars, tourists and archaeologists.

Historical monuments such as tombs, old buildings and other remnants of the past will be preserved, repaired and documented. It has been decided that no historical building will be demolished or altered to the extent that it loses its relevance to our history and culture (Ah! Where were you when the Shah Din Building of Lahore was condemned to be desecrated).

A historical atlas of Pakistan will be prepared showing the contiguity of the areas constituting Pakistan with detailed sketches of the centres of learning, historical monuments, urban planning and the centres of cultural activities, art and architecture- calligraphy, geometrical designs and other aspects of Islamic art and architecture with comparison with other forms of art and architecture.

The cultural policy goes on and states that the institution of Islamic Art and Architecture (emphasis on the word "the") may be established either at Thatta or Multan or Lahore by the respective provincial governments from their own resources (no one remember this tenet). And to impart education in Islamic architecture, painting, decorative arts, calligraphy, carving, metal work, and ceramics at post-graduate level as well as at diploma level.

Unfortunately, none of the above has taken place as culture for the ministry seems to be something else and as a consequence the national heritage is being lost more quickly than ever. Besides, the actual loss on tangibles, an even greater loss is seen in the stagnant tourism activity which is bound to slow down even more as countries like India open up their heritage to the world through easy access and availability of a modern infra-structure.

And things are going to further deteriorate when the glorious Sheesh Mahal will be fitted with a brand new roof, the Salt Range would not be left with its pearl string of temples and monasteries and when Mohenjodero will die- after living for all the last 5000 years.