Prime Minister
Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali is said to have refused to reevaluate
his decision to hand over the federally-controlled Lahore
Fort and Shalamar Gardens to the Punjab despite pressure
at the last cabinet meeting.
According to sources in the federal and
provincial archaeology departments, two ministers at the
meeting were of the view that the decision would create
legal complications. They also proposed that the government
should take the World Heritage Centre into confidence
on the issue as both the monuments were on the World Heritage
List (WHL).
The PM had announced the decision at a
programme in the Lahore Fort last month. A six-member
Committee on Decentralization of Monuments, headed by
former Peshawar University archaeology department chairman
Farid Khan, submitted its report to the federal culture
ministry two weeks ago, recommending that the WHL monuments
must not be transferred to provinces. However, the PM
set aside the recommendation.
The monuments on the WHL include the archaeological
site of Moenjodaro, historic monuments of Thatha, archaeological
remains of Taxila, Buddhist ruins of Takht Bhai, the city
remains at Sehri Bahlol, Rohtas Fort, Lahore Fort and
Shalamar Gardens.
The committee was formed last July under
a directive of President Gen Pervez Musharraf to ascertain
whether or not monuments under the control of the federal
archaeology department could be transferred to provinces.
Officials of the archaeology department
were of the view that committee's seven-month effort of
working out modalities regarding decentralization of monuments
had proved futile. They said: "Had the prime minister
gone through committee's report, he might not have taken
the decision."
Meanwhile, the culture ministry has forwarded
the report to the cabinet. Sources said the Punjab governor
and the chief minister had requested the prime minister
for administrative control of only the Lahore Fort and
Shalamar Gardens, both of which were good venues for cultural
functions.
The sources said that last month's provincial
government-sponsored light and show programme in the fort
had provided an opportunity to the Punjab to bring the
issue to limelight.
The federal government often refuses to
allow the provincial administration to organize such activities
at protected monuments in order to save them from vandalism.
The federal archaeology department controls
149 monuments in Punjab, 88 in the NWFP, 127 in Sindh
and 28 in Balochistan. The Punjab archaeology department
controls 244 monuments, Sindh only a few while the NWFP
and Balochistan have none under their control.
The federal archaeology department has
more than 1,100 employees, while the staff of all the
provincial archaeology departments combined number around
250. The federal archaeology department officials said
the Punjab archaeology department was being headed by
a non-professional.
Besides, the department neither had funds
nor technical staff like architects, engineers, excavators,
anthropologists, curators and conservators.
Punjab archaeology director Shahbaz Khan
said that after notification of the decision, the department
would either recruit more staff or put the gardeners and
baildars currently working at the two monuments on its
payroll.
Dispelling the impression that Punjab
could not take proper care of the monuments, he said that
an advisory committee would be constituted with officials
of the federal archaeology department among its members
to take decisions on allowing private or official functions
at the fort or the gardens.
