High level meeting held between NAs Federal Govt officials
By Asim Hussain

ISLAMABAD—According to a press release a high level meeting was held on Thursday between the elected officials of Northern Areas and the Federal Government. The meeting viewed the situation pertaining to rock carving and archaeological carving being impacted by the proposed Basha Dam.
Reportedly thousands of Rock Carvings have been discovered so far in the areas like Chilas, Hodar, Thaplan etc. during the last three decades by German Scholars in collaboration with the Department of Archaeology & Museum, government of Pakistan. The survey is still under process to document these rock carvings spread in different areas of Northern part of Pakistan.
More than 50.000 Petroglyphs and over 5000 inscriptions in 39 different scripts and languages have been recorded so far along the Karakoram Highway in the Northern Areas of Pakistan. These rock carving,which are cultural assets of the mankind are threatened and endangered due to the proposed construction of a dam near Basha.
The planned Basha-Diamer reservoir will endanger these very important archaeological remains of the Northern Areas of Pakistan. It is estimated that about 30.97 out of 32,405 rock carvings will be submerged by the Basha-Diamer reservoir including 3,290 inscriptions which is a tragedy for cultural history of this areas.
As the Bash-Diamer reservoir is a project of vital national importance, therefore, a meeting as arranged in Islamabad to discuss the various issues for safeguarding of engaged rock carvings. The meeting was held under the chairmanship of Shahid Rafi, Secretary, M/O Culture , attended by Qamar Zaman Chaudhry, Chief Secretary, Abdul Hamid, Advisor , Culture & Tourism, Sanaullah, Secretary Tourism, Northern Areas and Dr. Dazal Dad Kakar, Director General of Archaeology & Museum, Government of Pakistan.
During the meeting, it was decided unanimously, that the unique petroglyphs will be up uplifted (which are possible) from the location of reservoir and preserved in the Museums to be established at Gilgit and Chilas by the Department of Archaeology & Museums Government of Pakistan. All the other important petroglyphs will be copied through 3-D Digitizer Scanner and their replicas will be displayed in the proposed Museums.
The members of the Local Administration of Northern areas of Pakistan agreed to provide suitable piece of land free of charge for the Museums at Gilgit and Chilas.