Walled City of Peshawar trampled by urbanisation
Officials say historical buildings cannot be preserved without government funds
PHOTO: FILE
PESHAWAR:
The master plan to conserve the walled city of Peshawar might have been officially approved, but the problem of spatial growth management to regulate the expansion of the inner city remains an unresolved dilemma.
The plan — the PC-1 of which has been prepared — delineates a comprehensive strategy to document the condition of all buildings of historical and cultural significance, to build a complete profile of each building, and then to prepare a conservation/rehabilitation plan.
Preserving heritage: Visitors take a walk thorough ‘Peshawar the walled city’
A master plan has been made to assess the provision of municipal services, including water supply; sewerage, sanitation and solid waste management; street lighting; accessibility; and encroachment. The master plan will also suggest measures to resolve parking issues and build sidewalks for better pedestrian movement in the area. Above all, the plan would analyse the existing legal and institutional framework—including building bylaws—for the conservation and rehabilitation of buildings of historical and cultural significance, and planning permissions. This was stated in official documents available with The Express Tribune.
However, a government official involved in the project said although the plan was much needed, unfulfilled previous efforts and a lack of political will necessitates a more rigorous approach for the execution.
“There are legal lacunae surrounding the entire project,” the official said, while referring to the recent demolition of the Kapoor Haveli in the city. The police were initially hesitant to file an FIR when the owner of the building started knocking down portions of the haveli.
“There can be no preservation unless the government releases funds for implementation,” he added, stressing a majority of heritage buildings were private properties now.
A distant dream
The old city, as i t is referred to, is now a distant dream with the drastic changes it has been forced to go through.
A walk through the main arteries paints a picture vastly different from what Dr Ahmad Hasan Dhani, a famous historian, described. He wrote the walled city had “its own characteristics such as surrounded by substantial walls, about 20-feet high and two-feet thick, interspersed with 16 gates, closely spaced wooden tall structures with zigzag and narrow streets”. The old city was further enhanced by the British in 1848-49 when the colonial rulers established a planned community called Cantonment, covering an area of five square miles. The city in its current state of affairs remains an urbanised cluster with a large and overwhelming number of problems. “Electricity was introduced first here in January 1932,” the official said. “But since then, the wires have only grown to form a nest around a city of utter neglect.”
Last-ditch efforts
The master plan prepared by the Urban Policy Unit (UPU) seems to address these issues—and more—at length. With the plan exists the affirmation that if not implemented, “all buildings of historical/architectural value and other assets of social and environmental significance will disappear forever, and nothing will be left for future generations”.
Historic Peshawar buildings shake and crack
But such studies are not unique, a similar plan called Peshawar: Development and Planning Programme was designed in 1987. It also stressed on the same issue, citing the lack of available data, unplanned urbanisation and structural changes to the heart of city. Suggestions were made to restore the city’s “old look”, but only partial efforts were made. Now, 29 years later, the word used to describe the city remains frozen in time – dilapidated.
UPU is a subsidiary of the Planning and Development Department. It has kept a short-term development strategy with the stance that any piecemeal approach intended for the conservation of one building is not going to bring fruitful results.
Instead, the unit proposed a historic unit should be dealt as a whole, and its various parts and parcels should then be identified and conserved in a stage-wise manner.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 19th, 2016.
The master plan to conserve the walled city of Peshawar might have been officially approved, but the problem of spatial growth management to regulate the expansion of the inner city remains an unresolved dilemma.
The plan — the PC-1 of which has been prepared — delineates a comprehensive strategy to document the condition of all buildings of historical and cultural significance, to build a complete profile of each building, and then to prepare a conservation/rehabilitation plan.
Preserving heritage: Visitors take a walk thorough ‘Peshawar the walled city’
A master plan has been made to assess the provision of municipal services, including water supply; sewerage, sanitation and solid waste management; street lighting; accessibility; and encroachment. The master plan will also suggest measures to resolve parking issues and build sidewalks for better pedestrian movement in the area. Above all, the plan would analyse the existing legal and institutional framework—including building bylaws—for the conservation and rehabilitation of buildings of historical and cultural significance, and planning permissions. This was stated in official documents available with The Express Tribune.
However, a government official involved in the project said although the plan was much needed, unfulfilled previous efforts and a lack of political will necessitates a more rigorous approach for the execution.
“There are legal lacunae surrounding the entire project,” the official said, while referring to the recent demolition of the Kapoor Haveli in the city. The police were initially hesitant to file an FIR when the owner of the building started knocking down portions of the haveli.
“There can be no preservation unless the government releases funds for implementation,” he added, stressing a majority of heritage buildings were private properties now.
A distant dream
The old city, as i t is referred to, is now a distant dream with the drastic changes it has been forced to go through.
A walk through the main arteries paints a picture vastly different from what Dr Ahmad Hasan Dhani, a famous historian, described. He wrote the walled city had “its own characteristics such as surrounded by substantial walls, about 20-feet high and two-feet thick, interspersed with 16 gates, closely spaced wooden tall structures with zigzag and narrow streets”. The old city was further enhanced by the British in 1848-49 when the colonial rulers established a planned community called Cantonment, covering an area of five square miles. The city in its current state of affairs remains an urbanised cluster with a large and overwhelming number of problems. “Electricity was introduced first here in January 1932,” the official said. “But since then, the wires have only grown to form a nest around a city of utter neglect.”
Last-ditch efforts
The master plan prepared by the Urban Policy Unit (UPU) seems to address these issues—and more—at length. With the plan exists the affirmation that if not implemented, “all buildings of historical/architectural value and other assets of social and environmental significance will disappear forever, and nothing will be left for future generations”.
Historic Peshawar buildings shake and crack
But such studies are not unique, a similar plan called Peshawar: Development and Planning Programme was designed in 1987. It also stressed on the same issue, citing the lack of available data, unplanned urbanisation and structural changes to the heart of city. Suggestions were made to restore the city’s “old look”, but only partial efforts were made. Now, 29 years later, the word used to describe the city remains frozen in time – dilapidated.
UPU is a subsidiary of the Planning and Development Department. It has kept a short-term development strategy with the stance that any piecemeal approach intended for the conservation of one building is not going to bring fruitful results.
Instead, the unit proposed a historic unit should be dealt as a whole, and its various parts and parcels should then be identified and conserved in a stage-wise manner.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 19th, 2016.