LARKANA: Sindh Minister for Culture and Tourism Syed Zulfikar Ali Shah has hinted at the restoration of flights at Mohenjo Daro airport and starting of the Peoples Bus Service for the site to facilitate visitors and tourists to the World Heritage site.

Talking to newsmen at the site where the officials briefed the minister about the efforts to save the site from rain and weather onslaughts, he said: “We are planning to install lights around the stupa so that tourists can enjoy the night scene of the old relics.”

He said he would talk to the federal minister for power to have high power transmission line’s extension from Mohenjo Daro airport to the site for uninterrupted power supply.

The minister disclosed that the department would erect barbed wires around the entire site to protect it from the animals’ approach and discouraging establishment of encroachment.

In reply to a question regarding establishing a resource centre and constructing model replica, he said it would be investigated why such schemes were left halfway. A one-kilometre battered road leading to Mohenjo Daro would also be repaired in consultation with the provincial highways department, he said.

Accompanied by PPP MPA from Larkana Jamil Soomro, who is also political secretary to Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Syed Zulfikar Ali Shah said Sir Shahnawaz Bhutto Memorial Library would be digitalized, along with the addition of a new edition of books to facilitate readers and students preparing for the competitive examinations. He said directed the library managers to replace the furniture and ensure availability of drinking water there.

He said laptops and computers would be provided to the library, adding that all its sections would be upgraded and equipped with modern facilities. The minister thanked the party leadership for giving him this responsibility.

The critics of the PPP were surviving on political crutches, he said, adding that the party had served people in the past and that was why people had entrusted it with the fourth term in Sindh and “we are determined to serve the people”.

The minister also inaugurated a bookstall established by the culture department so that books published by the department would be made available for students and visitors.

Earlier, the minister visited Garhi Khuda Bakhsh Bhutto. He laid wreaths on the graves of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Benazir Bhutto, Begum Nusrat Bhutto, Mir Murtaza Bhutto and Mir Shahnawaz Bhutto and offered fateha.

He also met with a group of foreign visitors at the Bhutto’s Mausoleum.

Published in Dawn, March 25th, 2024