SUKKUR: The Sukkur bench of the Sindh High Court on Tuesday constituted a four-member committee and assigned it the task of conducting a survey of the Lakhin-Jo-Daro archaeological site with a view to defining its boundaries.

The committee has been told to submit a detailed report by March 11.

The bench was seized with a constitutional petition filed by a citizen, Mohib Chandio, through his counsel, Shabbir Shar and Sohail Khoso, stating that the archaeology department and other authorities concerned had not taken any steps for the protection of the historical site, a portion of which was grabbed.

The petitioner submitted in court that no efforts had been made to retrieve the encroached upon land.

The committee constituted by the bench comprises the archaeology department director-general, chairman of the archaeology department at the Shah Abdul Latif University (Khairpur), superintendent of the Khairpur survey department and managing director of the Sukkur SITE.

The SHC order has directed the committee to mention in its report the measurement and dimension of the total land of the declared archaeological site of Lakhin-Jo-Daro as well as details about the commercial plots and other structures raised adjacent to it.

It said that the Khairpur survey superintendent must pinpoint which and how much land/area pertained to the archaeological site.

The bench also maintained its stay order regarding the construction work on a plot claimed to be part of the archaeological site. It ruled that all construction work on the disputed plot should remain stopped till a decision on the petition.

The petition was filed in the wake of a controversy involving an industrialist on the one side and several stakeholders of the archaeological site, including the culture and archaeology departments and the district administration, on the other.

The industrialist had started construction of a mill on a plot which, according to him, was out of the limits of Lakhin-Jo-Daro. He also claims to have in possession of necessary NOCs issued by all relevant authorities.

Contesting his claims, the district administration with the approval of the departments concerned used its offices to restrain the industrialist from continuing with the construction work insisting that the plot was indeed part of the archaeological site.

The administration employed police force and machinery at least once when the industrialist defied its orders on the ground that they were in conflict with the an NOC issued earlier by the same administration.

Published in Dawn, February 18th, 2015

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