Retrieving ‘Dancing Girl’: SHC issues notices to federal, provincial authorities

Sindhi lawyers group approached the court seeking return of the relic

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) issued on Thursday notices to the federal and provincial authorities on a petition seeking return of the famous bronze statue known as the ‘Dancing Girl’ of Moen Jo Daro from India.

Headed by Justice Irfan Saadat Khan, the two-judge bench directed the deputy attorney-general and provincial advocate-general to file comments of the federal ministry of information, broadcasting and national heritage, the director-general of the federal archaeology department, the provincial chief secretary and the secretary of the culture and heritage department by December 7.

A Sindhi lawyers group had approached the court seeking direction for Islamabad to seek return of the precious archaeological relic, which has been preserved at the National Museum of the New Delhi.

According to the group’s vice-chairperson, Advocate Masood A Noorani, the bronze statue of the ‘Dancing Girl’ was dug out from the archaeological site of Moen Jo Daro located in Sindh back in 1926 along with other artefacts, such as ‘King Priest’, during excavation by archaeologist Earnest Mackey.

British archaeologist Sir Mortimer Wheeler had taken these two relics to the United Kingdom in 1946, before the Partition of the Subcontinent, to display them at an exhibition, Noorani told the judges, adding that the ‘King Priest’ and other relics have been recovered by Pakistani officials but the ‘Dancing Girl’ still remains at National Museum New Delhi, India.

The petitioner argued that under the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Convention of 1972, the original owner of any artefact is the country where the relic was found. He maintained that the ‘Dancing Girl’ is the property of Sindh and its people.

He recalled that it was learnt two years back at the Sindh Festival that the provincial government was sending a request to Islamabad for asking India to return the famous statue. A member of Sindh cabinet was heard saying “We are writing to [the] federal government to help us repatriate our exiled heroine from India”, he added.

However, unfortunately, the case has been put on backburners and no practical step has been taken by the provincial government for return of the statue, said Noorani.

Therefore, the court was pleaded to declare that the ‘Dancing Girl’ statue belongs to Sindh and it represents the cultural heritage of province. It was further urged to direct the federal and provincial governments to take immediate, necessary and appropriate steps for retrieving the ‘Dancing Girl’ from India by direct approach or through UNESCO or any other agency.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 11^th, 2016.