PESHAWAR, Sept 3: Archaeologists from across the country have proposed to hand over monuments and sites of historical importance to the respective provinces and delegate powers to the federating units under the Antiquity Act 1975.

The proposals were made at the concluding session of the first national seminar on Pakistan Archaeology and Museology, held at Baragali Summer Camp of the Peshawar University, said a press release issued here on Tuesday.

About 100 researchers, teachers and archaeology students from across the country attended the three-day seminar, jointly organised by the NWFP Directorate of Archaeology and the Army Heritage Foundation.

The seminar called for a close cooperation between the Army Heritage Foundation and the Department of Archaeology and Museums for the exchange of expertise, artifacts, publicity and participation in exhibitions.

The participants recommended that before undertaking a major development project in the jurisdiction of the archaeological sites in the country, cultural heritage assessment study should be carried out and the executing agency be bound to obtain clearance certificate from the concerned department.

Keeping in view the expertise and contribution of the Department of Archaeology, University of Peshawar, its academic position be enhanced to the level of the institute of south and central Asian studies in archaeology, they said. The seminar also proposed to establish an institute of heritage and tourism management at the University of Karachi to provide trained manpower.

The archaeologists asked the government to allow Kyoto University, Japan, to establish a Gandhara centre at Shahbaz Garhi in Mardan district because the Japanese archaeologists had excavated sites in its neighbourhood and in Rangat in Buner district.