Dancing Girl Statue: SHC seeks comments from federal, Sindh govts

Authorities to file comments on petition seeking return of bronze statue from India

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) issued again on Wednesday 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 Muneeb Akhtar, 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 the next hearing of the case - the date of which is to be decided by the court's office.

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 New Delhi.

According to the group's vice-chairperson, Advocate Masood A Noorani, the bronze statue 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', 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 Organisation (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 to ask India to return the famous statue. He added that a member of Sindh cabinet was heard saying, "We are writing to [the] federal government to help us repatriate our exiled heroine from India."

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

Therefore, the court was pleaded to declare that the 'Dancing Girl' statue belongs to Sindh and 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.

This is the second time that the court has sought comments from federal and provincial authorities.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 8^th, 2016.