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UNESCO accepts proposal to include Pakistan's eight historical sites to world heritage list

WION
Islamabad Capital Territory, PakistanUpdated: Jan 30, 2017, 06:01 AM IST
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File photo. Photograph:(AFP)

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) agreed Pakistan's proposal to include eight more sites to their list of World Heritage Sites. 

The Department of Archaeology and Museums (DOAM) has prepared a tentative list of sites which include: Derawar Fort in Cholistan, Hingol Cultural Landscape in Balochistan, Nagarparkar Cultural Landscape in Sindh, Central Karakoram National Park and Deosai National Park in Gilgit-Baltistan, Ziarat Juniper Forest and Karez System Cultural Landscape in Balochistan and the Khewra Salt Range in Punjab.

Deputy director of DOAM, Tahir Saeed said "Once UNESCO has approved, the next arduous task is to develop dossiers of all these sites - that could take up to two to three years for each site. Through the dossiers, Pakistan will prove to UNESCO its intended plans for how to best protect and manage these heritage sites, preservation and conservation programmes and ease of access and facilities for visitors from around the world. These are only some of the many other conditions set by UNESCO that will have to be met before the sites are added to the world heritage list," the Dawn reported. 

Most of the sites and monuments are in a decrepit state, with rampant vandalism and encroachments, ANI reported. 

In a recent case, five historical sites in Lahore were endangered as they stood in the path of the ongoing Orange line project 

Recently, five sites of historical significance in Lahore were threatened because they stood in the way of the ongoing Orange Line metro project. 

(WION with inputs from ANI)