Monument: ‘LED lights at Fawara Chowk will beautify it’

DCO says govt has developed a plan to restore historic monuments

BAHAWALPUR: The Bahawalpur district government has recently completed renovation work at Fawara Chowk and has installed LED lights there in an attempt to beautify the historic monument. “We are committed to ensuring the preservation and renovation of historic monuments in Bahawalpur,” DCO Ehtisham Anwar Mahaar during his visit to Fawara Chowk on Sunday.

He was accompanied by City Assistant Commissioner Rao Tasleem Akhter and City Tehsil Municipal Officer Arshad Ghumman.

Mahaar said the 136-year-old fountain, installed in the heart of Bahawalpur city, had special historic significance for the people of Bahawalpur. “It was a gift from Queen Victoria to the then ameer of Bahawalpur,” the DCO said. The 10-foot long fountain was sent from London via ship to Karachi and to Bahawalpur by road to be installed at the Sadiq Garh Palace in Ahmadpur East in 1880. A similar statue was installed at the Buckingham Palace the same year. The fountain at Sadiq Garh Palace was later moved to the present location on instructions of Nawab Sir Sadiq Muhammad Khan Abbasi the fifth in 1918, he said.

“The structure stands today as it did when it was installed here,” Mahaar said.

“A lot of hard work has gone into maintaining and renovating the fountain…this speaks volumes of our systematic and comprehensive development project which places much importance on restoration and renovation of historic artefacts,” said the DCO.

He said the LED would further beautify the Fawara Chowk.

“It occupies a special place in the hearts of the people of Bahawalpur city,” the DCO said.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 11^th, 2016.