Pakistan: 5,000 years of art and culture
Pakistan: 5,000 years of art and culture
This issue of the Unesco Courier is devoted in major part to Pakistan and its rich heritage of art and culture. Pakistan's cultural history goes back almost 5,000 years when a great civilization was born in the Indus valley . Excavations at two of its major cities, Moenjodaro and Harappa, show that the Indus valley people reached a remarkable stage of development in town planning and architecture and an extraordinary degree of artistic sophistication. Today the site of Moenjodaro is threatened with destruction by salt corrosion and flooding from the Indus river.
The recent flood damage to cultural monuments and educational facilities in Pakistan amounts to a real disaster affecting the country's future, declared René Maheu, Director-General of Unesco, 'at a special press conference held in Paris last September. World public opinion, he said, must be alerted to the serious damage from floods in the Punjab and in the Indus valley. The number of educational establishments at all levels either destroyed or damaged was in the order of 8,000, nearly 800 of them secondary schools or post-secondary and technical institutes. The damage, so far calculated at $13 million, affected buildings, libraries, equipment and laboratories, said Mr. Maheu.
Damage had also been suffered by over 30 monuments of major importance and 150 other monuments or archaeological sites. The threat to the famous site of Moenjodaro, in which Unesco is particularly interested, had been considerably increased. Mr. Maheu appealed to international solidarity, urging those who were able to contribute in cash or in kind to help the rebuilding of the educational infrastructure and the preservation of the cultural heritage of Pakistan.
UNESCO and the Government of Pakistan have drawn up a plan for the preservation and development of the Moenjodaro site. The first phase will require an estimated $7.5 million. The Executive Board of Unesco has authorized the Director-General to launch an international campaign aimed at raising $5 million towards the first phase of the preservation and protection of Moenjodaro.