The member of Italian development mission, Ms. Benini, called on Minister Culture Syed Sardar Ali Shah at his office, and discussed the matters related to the mutual interest.
The Secretary Culture, Mr. Ghulam Akbar Laghari and Director General Antiquities Mr. Manzoor Ahmed Kanasiro also participated in the meeting.
“There are wonderful embroidery works that are unique to the culture of Sindh”, said the member Development mission of Italy, Ms Benini.
She further said that she personally likes the traditional music and the literature of Sindh۔ especially poetry.
The Minister Culture Syed Sardar Ali Shah and Italian development member discussed at length the possibilities of inclusion of different aspects of intangible cultural heritage of Sindh.Syed Sardar Ali Shah told her that the department has already submitted the dossiers of NangarParkar and Bhanbhor at UNESCO for their inclusion in list of world heritage sites.“We will further work on the dossiers of embroidery, music and poetry of Sindh as this is unique intangible cultural heritage of the whole world,” he said.
He further said that the poetry of Shah Abdul Lateef Bhittai is a kind of universal message for whole humanity.
It is collective world heritage.The Minister told her that the musical instrument found from 5000 years old Indus civilization site of Mohenjo-Daro, i.e. Borendo, is still being played in Sindh, and if included in the world heritage list, it might be one of oldest musical instrument of the world.
He told the mission about the joint efforts of Sindh and Italy in the related fields, especially Archeology under the supervision of Professor Valeria, that has been fruitful in bringing out many new explorations from the site of Banbhore during the previous years but after CoviD-19 the mission couldn’t visit Sindh.”
The Department is committed to get the research work published as soon as they come and resume the research work”, he further elaborated.
The visiting delegation and the Minister Culture agreed that the cultural exchanges between Italy and Sindh would be initiated once the CoviD episode is over.
The codal formalities and details of the establishment of Institute of Heritage and Scientific Research at Bhanbhore were discussed during the meeting.
The Minister told the consulate delegation that the proposed institute is being established in collaboration with Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology (SZABIST), and the work of this scheme would start from August 2021.
The Minister Syed Sardar Shah presented the delegation with recently published books of the department, and the trilingual compilation of poetry of Shah Abdul Lateef “Ganj”, as republished by the department.
