Pakistan and Italy Formalize Anti-Antiquities Trafficking Pact

Pakistan and Italy are formalizing a bilateral mechanism to combat antiquities trafficking, with the Federal Investigation Agency and Italy's Carabinieri for the Protection of Cultural Heritage (TPC) set to establish a dedicated liaison desk in Rome. A formal MoU is expected to be signed in Islamabad next month, codifying intelligence sharing, forensic training, and real-time access to Leonardo, the Carabinieri's database of over three million recovered stolen artifacts. The framework follows Interior Minister Mohsin Raza Naqvi and FIA Director General Dr Usman Anwar's Rome visit in February, where the two sides agreed in principle to the arrangement. The urgency is driven by measurable escalation: FIA reported seizures of smuggled Gandharan and Buddhist artifacts worth over $3.2 million in 2025 alone, and in February the agency dismantled a ring in Taxila attempting to move 2nd-century statues to Europe via Dubai. Archaeological sites in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab have seen a sharp uptick in thefts feeding these networks. Under the structure, FIA officers will train at the Carabinieri academy in Rome, with the first cohort scheduled for the third quarter of 2026. The TPC, a 300-strong unit regarded as the world's leading cultural-property police force, has recovered more than three million artifacts since 1969. Pakistan's institutional access to TPC forensic tools and operational databases marks a concrete upgrade in enforcement capability against transnational cultural-property crime.