IF there’s one thing our provinces know how to do, it’s how to squabble with one another over the ownership of everything from water to taxes. Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are arguing over the Gandhara artefacts — some real but, according to the Sindh government’s archaeological department, more than half fake — that were recovered from smugglers in Karachi in July. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa points out that the items were likely dug up within its borders; Sindh makes the less convincing argument that its museums should house them because they were recovered in the port city. But while the two provinces duke it out over ownership, what, if anything, is being done about the real issues? More relevant than inter-provincial rivalries are the real problems the story reveals: the lucrative trade in real and fake Gandhara artefacts in which Pakistanis are major players; the fact that little official effort is made to unearth these treasures, leaving them vulnerable to poaching; and the lack of provincial capacity to preserve or effectively showcase them. Even if one or the other province were to get their hands on them, how well would the items be protected and preserved?

In fact, the whole saga of the smuggled artefacts has been illustrative of the lack of official capacity to properly value these treasures, from the smuggling itself to the way in which police mishandled and neglected the items after they were recovered to the fact that more than half of them turned out to be fake, proving that an effective counterfeiting industry exists. Given the treasure trove it is sitting on, Pakistan could become world famous for exhibiting rather than smuggling this ancient art. Instead, as in many other matters, the authorities are more concerned with petty rivalries than with the national interest.