WRITTEN BY CH. FAISAL MAHMOOD
As we mentioned earlier also that the basic principle underlying the worldwide elevation of Tourism to its policy status of Visitor Economy is that local assets – whether physical or abstract – should be activated to sustain community pride and to generate income and thereby ensure its socio-economic wellbeing.
Other countries, which were part of the Mughal and British Raj like ours, have glorified even the smallest physical evidence of that part of their history; not only palaces but even roadside monuments and animal feed-troughs of that period are taken care of and added to their Tourism assets. But in our country there are several major heritage sites suffering negligence and decay.
Recently the World Heritage Committee of UNESCO added 37th Indian heritage site in the list of world heritage site. In the past 5 years alone, India has managed to get inscribed seven of its sites on the World Heritage List of UNESCO. A country like similar to us heritage wise stands second largest in number after China in terms of number of World Heritage properties in ASPAC (Asia and Pacific) region, it is overall sixth in the world.
Thank God our matchless heritage asset, a powerful symbol of love, peace and tolerance, a seventh century the holy figure caved at a cliff , the Buddha of Swat, once destroyed my our enemy heritage, is restored again .
Though it is late but it is still not too late of doing praiseworthy job done by the Department of Archeology and Museums wherein it has completed process of preserving through digitalization of around 3500 artifacts at its Digitalization Centre.
The digitalization will prevent illicit trafficking of the archaeological objects. The electronic database will also be very helpful for scholars and students conduct research.
The digital archiving of the whole record of the archaeological artifacts in the custody of the department was direly needed for preservation, preventing it from illicit trafficking and providing data to the scholars for interpretive information.
Surly the government will complete this task on priority basis and the department would digitize the entire inventory with the department which would be replicated by all the provinces so that a national inventory can be created.
Pakistan needs to comply with the UNESCO Convention of 1970 – Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import Export and Transfer of the Ownership of Cultural Property.
Holiday weekly hopes that the recovered smile of the Buddha and its iconic status will help Pakistan to boost religious tourism from places such as China, Japan, Korea and Thailand.
Some people in Swat also see the Buddha as a tool for promoting religious tolerance.
Holiday Weekly hopes that the threat to our artifacts and cultural heritage has been “minimized” through digitalization and further we can minimize through education and the use of social networks to spread. After all our National Heritage is for more important for us; much important then people &Project which poses a grave threat to Pakistani people`s historical and cultural heritage. Nothing should be & would be tolerated at the cost of National Heritage of Whole Pakistan.
