KARACHI: The day-long 10th Dr N.A.

Baloch National Seminar on `Historic Towns of Sindh` looked at the province`s old cities, their people, culture and architecture at the National Museum of Pakistan on Saturday.

The papers and presentations, in both Urdu and Sindhi languages, kept the main focus on Shikarpur, the city which was a gateway for trade and an economic corridor due to its significant location.

Speaking on the occasion, Professor and Co-chairperson at the Department of Architecture and Planning, NED University of Engineering and Technology, Dr Anila Naeem, said that she was researching Sindh`s historic cities, including Karachi, Thatta, Hyderabad, Sukkur and Mirpurkhas when she came upon Shikarpur.

`After shortlisting the historic cities, which are still growing, I started concentrating on Shikarpur,` she said, adding that her PhD thesis took her to Shikarpur from 2006to 2009.

`I kept visiting there after my doctorate. It was such an interesting city. Two books also came out as a result of those visits,` she added.

The first book, Shikarpoor: Historic City, Sindh, Pakistan. Inventory & Mapping of Heritage Properties, published in 2013, comprised two volumes.

The second book was Urban Traditions and Historic Environments in Sindh: A Fading Legacy of Shikarpoor, Historic City, which came out in 2017.

About the first book, she said that it is an inventory of some 1,200 historic properties.

`The reason for publishing the inventory was not just to share data on the historic buildings but to also show how the town can be managed properly so that its historic buildings are preserved, though it never happened. Today, that data we gathered for the book is dated. But all the historic cities, including Shikarpur, should be celebrated, she said.

`These cities are not just our historical assets they can also be economic assets.

Heritage tourism is a big industry around the world. It also helps preserve heritage,` she said, adding that it is important to carry out some sort of activity in heritage buildings in order to preserve them.

More speeches were made and papers were read by archeologists, historians and writers, including Dr Asma Ibrahim, Dr Abdul Ghaffar Soomro, Dr Anwar Figar Hakro, Drto 2009.

`I kept visiting there after my doctorate. It was such an interesting city. Two books also came out as a result of those visits,` she added.

The first book, Shikarpoor: Historic City, Sindh, Pakistan. Inventory & Mapping of Heritage Properties, published in 2013, comprised two volumes.

The second book was Urban Traditions and Historic Environments in Sindh: A Fading Legacy of Shikarpoor, Historic City, which came out in 2017.

About the first book, she said that it is an inventory of some 1,200 historic properties.

`The reason for publishing the inventory was not just to share data on the historic buildings but to also show how the town can be managed properly so that its historic buildings are preserved, though it never happened. Today, that data we gathered for the book is dated. But all the historic cities, including Shikarpur, should be celebrated, she said.

`These cities are not just our historical assets they can also be economic assets.

Heritage tourism is a big industry around the world. It also helps preserve heritage,` she said, adding that it is important to carry out some sort of activity in heritage buildings in order to preserve them.

More speeches were made and papers were read by archeologists, historians and writers, including Dr Asma Ibrahim, Dr Abdul Ghaffar Soomro, Dr Anwar Figar Hakro, DrMuhammad Ali Manjhi, Dr Zaffar Junjo, Dr Zulfiqar Ali Kalhoro.

During a panel discussion about the `Challenges for the Preservation of Historic Towns`, moderated by Dr Tania Soomro, it was again pointed out how lucky the country is to have a tapestry of layers and layers of historic architecture though it has all been a victim of years and years of neglect.

Dr Anila Naeem, who was also a part of the prestigious panel, said that in Pakistan`s history the major turning point was the migration ofthe indigenous people.

`There are many historic properties whose ownership is not clear due to this. Also, it has taken away a sense of ownership of a city or town,` she said.

`There is a need for political will, there is a need for the establishment of systems to bring back that pride and sense of ownership of historic places,` she added.

Speaking about the change in the historic city of Hyderabad since he did his PhD from there in 1989, retired Justice Prof Dr Qamaruddin Bohra said that Hyderabad was a neat and clean city with law and order back in the 1980s.

`The law and order situation there was such that people didn`t even feel the need to lock their main doors,` he remembered. `But todayevenI am afraid of going to Hyderabad, he sighed.

The acting Vice Chancellor of NED University, Dr Noman Ahmed, said that there needs to be laws for preserving Sindh`s heritage.

He said that there is the Sindh Cultural Preservation Act of 1994 but it is not current.

`Heritage preservation can be an industry.

Heritage also means preserving our ways of living, our culture and not just saving a few buildings, he said.

`In our Northern Areas, there is the Ismaili community which engages itself in conservation of heritage. There is also the example of Bosnia Herzegovina where the enemy targeted all the structures of historic value. But the people of Bosnia revived and preserved their architecturalheritage. I wish our people, together with the government and civil society, could do the same for cities such as Shikarpur,` he said.

Archeologist and historian Dr Kaleemullah Lashari said that he valued the history of Thatta.

He was also made the director of a restoration project of the city in the mid-1990s.

But he regretted to inform that the master plan he had come up with was shelved due to the lack of enthusiasm of the people of Thatta.

`They were not interested in preserving their heritage. They were more interested in setting up meat shops and shopping plazas from the help they had received from the Benazir government in 1994 for restoring theirhistoric town. And they told the prime minister that Thatta, today, is a city, which is eating up itself,` he said.

He also said that it was important to make lawsthat empower and educate communities to help them save their heritage by rebuilding their infrastructure which in turn would help towns and cities prosper.