LAHORE, Aug 3: The fate of the much publicised draft of the national policy for preservation and promotion of culture and heritage hangs in the balance as the federal culture ministry has yet to submit it to the cabinet for approval.

A steering committee, comprising representatives of federal and provincial culture departments and Unesco, had prepared a final draft on it after incorporating suggestions of the provinces and submitted it to the federal culture ministry some six months ago.

Sources said the final draft should have been forwarded to the cabinet early this year but the culture ministry which earlier was taking much interest now seemed to put the matter on back burner.

The framework of the policy was prepared on the basis of the Pakistan-UNDP-Uensco’s 2003 report which suggested that immediate measures should be adopted to safeguard the country’s culture and heritage.

The report had proposed formulation of a national policy on culture and cultural heritage, requiring mapping of all tangible and intangible cultural resources and involving the private sector for their identification, safeguarding and promotion. The sources said the final draft had incorporated mostly the tangible heritage like archaeological and underwater sites, historic monuments, urban cores, movable heritage and historic landscapes.

However, it did not focus much on the intangible art like performing arts and languages, they added. On the announcement of preparing the draft of the policy in the mid of last year, World Punjabi Congress chairman Fakhar Zaman had strongly criticized it saying that his policy on it already existed and there was no need of any new policy.

The ministry then had directed the committee to also take into account Mr Zaman and Faiz Ahmad’s draft policies on culture and heritage before finalising the fresh draft. The present state of heritage conservation and cultural tourism in the country is full of potential but handicapped by lack of resources, cooperation and efficient infrastructure.

According to the final draft, the establishment of permanent national commission for preservation of national heritage with the following provisions; budgetary provisions allocated from the federal, mapping, storage and insurance provisions, demarcation of heritage and archaeological sites, strong security provisions for movable and immovable heritage properties and penalties for violation of law had been suggested.

It also proposed that new legislation should be made to support the new policy and introduced amendments to it with the passage of time.

The amendments in existing laws such as federal legislation, the Pakistan Penal Code, the fiscal legislation and tax laws, Access to Information Act, custom laws and the Local Government Acts and Planning Regulations had been suggested.

The draft also suggested that the ministry of culture should create a mechanism, in collaboration with private sector tourist organizations, for the promotion of cultural tourism.

Ministries like commerce, education, communication and railways should work for the promotion of culture and heritage.

It also recommended to formulate a national strategy for mapping cultural resources through professionals available with the provinces and the district governments.

The establishment of a central clearing house to store the cultural resource data base with a methodology for cross referencing through the latest technological tools has been proposed. Training and capacity building programmes at the district level for effective preparation of cultural maps had also been suggested in the plan.

It proposed to incorporate a cultural heritage impact assessment system as a legally binding component for planning of development projects.

To undertake measures to ensure safeguarding, protection and maintenance of heritage premises by their custodians and occupant departments is a must.

Stored antiquities should be shared with and exhibited at other museums and institutions. Professional training to heritage managers and craftsmen besides providing technical assistance to local communities through seminars has been required.

The creation of endowment funds, trusts and special funds for cultural heritage and monuments, historic urban centres, traditional crafts and immovable heritage had been suggested in the draft.