ISLAMABAD, Jan 8 (APP):Federal Minister for National History and LiteraryHeritage (NH&LH), Shafqat Mehmood Tuesday assured his all out support forexecuting the task of mapping of all the heritage sites across the countryto indentify the potential ones for maintenance, preservation anddocumentation.
Chairing the second meeting of Coordination Committee on Heritage Sites ofPakistan at NH&LH Division, the federal minister emphasized on preparing aconsolidated document carrying list of the Buddhist, Sikh and Hindus sitesseparately for the guidance purposes.
He urged the provincial authorities to enhance coordination and cooperationin the area of literary, built-up and intangible cultural heritage forpreservation of this precious heritage for transferring to our futuregenerations.The minister was of the view that the religious sites falling under EvacueeTrust Property Board (ETPB) and Auqaf Department also needs mapping fortheir maintenance.
He said our country has great potential of boosting religious tourism andit can help generate huge revenues.Shafqat Mehmood also assured to initiate efforts for bringing the recoveredartifacts of Balochistan back from other countries to house these in thenewly constructed museum.
The participants of the forum agreed to conduct mapping cultural, naturaland religious across the country to develop plans for maintenance andpreservation of heritage sites.
They also expressed their commitment to work together on preparingnomination of cultural and national heritage sites for inscription onUNESCO’s world heritage list.
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The Culture and Archeology Ministers or representatives from KhyberPakhtunkhwa, Gilgit Baltistan, Punjab, Balochistan and Azad Jammu Kashmirbriefed the minister about initiatives taken in their respective provincesfor protection of heritage sites.
The representative of Punjab government gave a detailed presentation onimpact of Orange Train Line Project on World Heritage Site i.e ShalimarGardenFederal Secretary for NH&LH, Engineer Aamir Hasan, Director General,Department of Archeology and Museums (DoAM), Islamabad and Director,UNESCO, Vibeke Jensen also attended the meeting.
This forum was set up in June 2018 with the view to enhance coordinationand information sharing between federal and provincial governments onheritage of Pakistan.
