KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Wednesday sought advice from the visiting international experts for the repair work of Sehwan Fort, built even before the Greek conqueror Alexander passed through the Indus Valley.
He said this while speaking at the International Conference on ‘Alexander in the Indus Valley’ held at the city campus of the Institute of Business Administration.
The conference, organised by he Endowment Fund Trust (EFT), was attended among others by Syed Fakir Aijazuddin, Dr Robin Lane Fox, Emeritus Fellow of New College, Oxford University, and Dr Richard Stoneman, Honorary Professor at the University of Exeter.
Hamid Akhund hosted the first session in which Culture Minister Syed Sardar Shah, Hameed Haroon, Jahangir Siddiqui and others spoke.
Speaking on the occasion, the CM said that Sehwan Fort had suffered due to neglect and unprecedented monsoon rains, and added that the provincial government had started repair works on rain and flood-damaged sites.
He said that there was a need of organising one or two international conferences every year to invite men of letters to visit Sindh and to interact, create a clear understanding of each other and revive old contacts, and promote and enrich its literature, education and promote meaningful research.
Conference on ‘Alexander in the Indus Valley’ opens at IBA
He said that he belonged to Sehwan and grew up hearing tales of Alexander’s visit to this part of the world. “Even now, more than 2,300 years since his visit, stories of Alexander’s sojourn are deeply embedded within local folklore and popular imagination,” he added.
CM Shah said that the fort possibly retained evidence that would help understand the full impact of Alexander’s time spent in the Indus region.
He said that as a boy, Alexander dreamed of matching the heroic feats of Achilles, by 20 he led his cavalry to stunning victories, and by 25, he had crushed the Persian Empire.
“He was in the Indus Valley for a very short period of over two years and this great leader of armed men had for the first time in history linked the East to the West with the largest empire and for twelve and a half years, he has ruled,” he said.
He said the EFT had come up to his expectations in organising this conference on time.
The conference will continue till Friday.
Published in Dawn, February 23th, 2023
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