For those who realise the importance of our heritage, the news that UNESCO has agreed to consider eight more Pakistani sites in its World Heritage Sites list is heartening.

As informed by sources in the Department of Archaeology and Museums, these sites include Derawar Fort, Cholistan Hingol Cultural Landscape, Balochistan, Nagarparkar Cultural Landscape, Sindh Central Karakoram National Park, and Deosai National Park in Gilgit Baltistan; Ziarat Juniper Forest and Karez System Cultural Landscape in Balochistan as well as Khewra Salt range in the Punjab.

While UNESCO and other international bodies continue to support heritage management through various projects, the performance of our own institutions has been far from satisfactory. Thousands of building and archaeological sites in the country have been either completely destroyed or affected beyond repair due to wilful neglect, ulterior motives and simply incapability to manage heritage.

It is important to note that during the past several years, the print and electronic media has promoted the cause of heritage to a commendable extent. However, despite the efforts on awareness raising, little action has been observed in terms of policy, project formulation, and implementation. Several issues need to be addressed in this respect.

In situations where allocation of public funds pertinent to social sectors have a very vast area to cover, scanty resources do not find their way to heritage sites. It is kept at the lowest of rankings which can wait. At certain times it is assumed that the waiting time can stretch to infinite limits.

Since the development allocations are dealt by politicians or technocrats who consider heritage as an unworthy area of spending, they usually ignore the need for grant of funds. This approach can hardly be justified since cultural and built heritage is an important component of the national assets.

When the bonding of the society is strong with its culture, its overall performance is naturally enhanced. It cannot happen without the physical reference to heritage that embodies the culture and traditions for present generations and posterity. All it requires is adequate recognition and justified response from the policy makers.

Pakistan is being tagged as a culturally intolerant society. The best way to counter that charge is by coming up with culturally accommodating and practically viable strategies towards heritage preservation.

Changing political priorities have a direct repercussion on the overall well-being of heritage. Till the 1970s, the overall situation was generally satisfactory. While no major policy or programme was formulated in this period, the level of tolerance and balanced code of conduct adopted by the governments and the society did not generate any negative impact on the heritage as a whole. What, however, happened was that the buildings that were weak and required surgical repairs either came down or were razed to the ground by the owners.

It was during the late 1970s and early 1980s that the real problems came up, especially with reference to the urban heritage. Rapid urbanisation in Karachi, Lahore and other major cities created a threat to heritage. In some cases, high profile edifices were pulled down to make way for new structures.

In Karachi, plans are underway to demolish a beautiful bank building on I.I. Chundrigar Road from British colonial times to make way for a 36-storey corporate tower. There are many sites and heritage buildings in cities that face different types and degrees of threat.

Possibility of demolition after the building is sold to a real estate developer, deliberate destruction of heritage through wilful neglect, step-by-step destruction of building components in connivance with building control officials and attempts to pressurise the government to de-list buildings that are declared part of heritage sites are a few examples.

Heritage conservation requires specialised expertise for most of the stages of work. For the living building heritage, a conservation architect is needed to prepare assessments and designs, cost estimations and supervision protocols. In Pakistan, the total number of qualified architects is around 5000. Specialist conservation architects are not more than a handful.

Similarly, restoration works need contractors and site engineers who are well versed in dealing with heritage buildings, renovation and restoration work. Very few experienced contractors exist in the field of restoration. For this reason, conservation work is awarded to ordinary contractors.

A famous Mughal landscape in Lahore has been very poorly handled by the department concerned. The two worth-emulating examples include the restoration work of Baltit Fort Restoration in the Ziarat Residency, which was badly damaged during a terror attack few years ago.

There is also a need for technicims, masons, and skilled wood workers to work on specialised sites. Given the fact that Pakistan contains thousands of historic building sites, there is an enormous amount of work that can justify the logic for the creation of this much-needed human resource.

Professionals and other citizens have not been able to put up a strong economic justification for conserving heritage buildings. It is a fact that the cost of conservation is very high. Policy makers find it difficult to allocate public funds for heritage management. The only exception is high profile sites and places of prime religious importance. It requires a multi pronged strategy.

The promulgation of a National Heritage Management Policy approved by the federal government, creation of specific heritage management plans at the provincial and district levels and partnership with other interested stakeholders is a viable alternative.

The corporate sector has shown its interest in some early examples of heritage conservation. An oil marketing multinational contributed to the efforts of revival and restoration of Rohtas Fort. Many other corporate entities can be motivated to support the ever expanding list of heritage management projects. Activities related to tourism and cultural events can also prove helpful if carefully and sensitively organised.

Some international agencies that are active in heritage restoration include: UNESCO, World Monument Fund, International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) and International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM). The most relevant area of collaboration for Pakistan can be training, education and documentation support. Link programmes with local educational partners can be of immense value.