Shah Allah Ditta caves

It is on our very own Margalla Hills which are linked to the Buddha’s trail reaching to Tibet; Buddha and his followers walked along these very paths and had used to meditate in the 2,500-year-old Buddhist caves of Shah Allah Ditta. This village attracts many tourists annually. Sites of religious, cultural and historical importance serve as huge contributors to Pakistan’s GDP because many tourists from all over the world come to these sites for religious tourism to pay their respect, or perhaps even culturally curiously. This just acts as yet another reason why maintenance and protection of these historical sites by our state is vital. There is a need to develop secure and sustainable religious and cultural heritage tourism along this Buddha’s trail by developing a safe and secure infrastructure including one or two airports (naming them as Gandhara or Buddha), hotels and markets. This will boost economy and project Pakistan as safer place for religious-cultural tourism.

The Buddha statue being annihilated has broken the hearts of not just the entire community in Takht Bai but the entire nation at large and Buddhists all over the world. An Antique is a property of the state which will later become a relic that holds international importance as world heritage. The Buddhist monastery, a UNICEF world heritage site located in Takht Bai is known as the epicenter for Buddhist civilization. There are approximately 450 archaeological and Buddhist sites all over Mardan and this raises the concern of what would happen if uneducated locals came upon more artifacts. The state has to spread awareness the local communities around these sites about the importance of the artifacts, after all, they are a symbol of those who came before us and once destroyed, can never be recovered.

Pakistan is under an international obligation under the UNICEF ‘Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Culture and Natural Heritage which was Adopted by the General Conference at its seventeenth session in Paris, 16 November 1972 as it is stated in Article six of this convention that the protection of such heritage is every state party’s duty. This protection should be mandated on citizens as well and this can only happen when citizens are made aware of the importance of conserving these relics and that is why all religions must be respected and their history must be preserved.

Pakistan as a member of the world community is responsible for preserving and safeguarding the belongings of the international community for generations to come as custodian of entire world. The culture and heritage in any shape or modes are gifts and a path to the next generation from previous generation. This must be done for the purposes of recording history through artifacts, or for further recreation and research into these ancient civilizations. The world heritage belongs to all the nations not to a single nation. The world heritage belongs to all of us as our identity. It gives us sense of belonging and links our culture and history to protection. By recognizing that heritage as an extension of human beings, our dignity, our identity and our history, we then understand the protection of heritage as a humanitarian concern in its own right.

We must call for stricter and immediate action being taken against anyone who destroys artifacts and disrespects history. The existence of another civilization doesn’t negate the existence of ours. This should be the lesson from the history. Let us hope that as a collective responsibility the state and the local communities will play their role to protect common world heritage and protect archeological sites to promote religious tourism in Pakistan. The time is ripe to act now.

(The author is the Islamabad-based senior lawyer)