Sindh to repair car of man who excavated Moen Jo Daro

Archaeologist Sir John Marshall’s Ford rusting for years


Saadia Qamar January 12, 2017
The car of acclaimed archaeologist Sir John Marshall has been lying forgotten in a garage for years. PHOTO: COURTESY MUJAHID SHAH

KARACHI: Sir John Marshall, the man who excavated the ancient Indus Valley Civilisation at Moen Jo Daro in the 1920s, left behind his Ford car and now the Sindh culture department wants to repair it.

Marshall, who served as director-general of the Archaeological Survey of India, led the team of excavators at Moen Jo Daro, which was later included as Unesco’s World Heritage Site. Since then, his car has been gathering rust. “When Marshall came to British India, he had a car of his own,” said a culture department official, requesting anonymous. “Today, the car is rusting away in a garage and has turned into a relic with no one trying to safeguard it.”

It came as a surprise to culture minister Syed Sardar Shah when he visited Moen Jo Daro and found the vehicle. “I was really surprised to see the rusty car and ordered its preservation,” he said.

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Open for bids

After his orders, the department approached Ford, a US-based automobile manufacturer, to ask for repairs. “But the company has not given any positive response,” said Sindh culture department director-general Manzoor Kanasro. Now, the department has invited international tenders for repairs, he said.

Kanasro blamed the federal government for failing to preserve the vehicle until now. “The archaeology department was under the federal government and was recently devolved to the province,” he claimed. “This car had been lying idle so we shifted it to a proper garage immediately after taking over.” The official said the bidding process will be finalised soon.

Not everyone is on board with the restoration process. There is little hope that the car will be restored to its original condition and put in a museum, said a senior officer of the culture department. “The bidding is a formality. I think the services of a local mechanic will be hired for repairs,” he claimed. Not everyone is sceptical. Moen Jo Daro technical consultative committee’s chairperson Kaleemullah Lashari appreciated the government’s good gesture. “However, it requires a lot of technical effort to make the car operational,” he pointed out.

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Down memory lane

According to Sindh archaeology department’s former director-general Qasim Ali Qasim, the car was first placed at Lahore Fort in the 1960s. “In 1974, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto tried to get it repaired and display it but that never happened,” he said. “Several attempts were made, I even tried in the past to get in touch with the Ford Company but it told me to get in touch with their offices in Bahrain and Singapore.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 13th, 2017.

COMMENTS (4)

Amir | 7 years ago | Reply This was the same story two three years back as well....every minister wants it restored and leaves.
Bana Post | 7 years ago | Reply Great News from Pakistan
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