1,209 dangerous, illegal buildings notified in Walled City

Official says authority is struggling to deal with issue

LAHORE: In its effort to turn the Walled City of Lahore into a heritage zone, the building control department of the Walled City of Lahore Authority (WLCA) has sent 1,209 notices to the dangerous and illegal buildings.

This was stated by WLCA Deputy Director Media Tania Qureshi on Monday.

The authority sealed 420 illegal buildings inside the walled city of Lahore during the last year because they were constructed without the WLCA’s approval, she said.

Tania said that ‘Istighasa’ also called private complaint to magistrate has been launched against 396 illegal properties so far. Similarly, the number of FIRs registered against illegal properties is 740, whereas 160 buildings have been partially demolished. These properties were located inside different wards of the Walled City, which are inside Taxali Gate, Lohari Gate, Masti Gate and Rim Market, Mochi Gate, Shah Almi Gate, Akbari Gate, Yakki Gate, Sheranwala Gate and Kashmiri Gate.

According to WCLA Deputy Director Building Control Riffat Pasha, illegal constructions inside the walled city of Lahore are like a menace and the authority was struggling to deal with them.

“We are being helped out by the political groups in fighting the mafia. Our team is conducting surveys of various wards of the walled city Lahore during the night time and our priority is to seal and catch the ongoing works immediately,” Riffat said.

Director Conservation and Building Control WCLA Najamus Saqib said that in order to catch up with the pace, the authority was increasing the required manpower so that the monitoring teams could become more efficient and effective in mitigating the illegal activities.

“There are deep roots of illegal constructions inside the walled city and it will take some time to stop. However, this cannot happen overnight, but I am sure eventually we will make this city an example of heritage zone by taking control of these issues,” he added.

The Walled City of Lahore, located in the north-western part of the city also known as the ‘Old City’ or ‘Androon Shehr’, is the section that was fortified by a wall during the Mughal era. The Walled City had 13 gates namely Akbari Gate, Bhati Gate, Delhi Gate, Kashmiri Gate, Lahori Gate, Masti Gate, Mochi Gate, Mori Gate, Roshnai Gate, Shahalmi Gate, Shairanwala Gate, Taxali Gate, and Yakki Gate.

All of these gates survived until the 19th century when the British rulers demolished almost all of the gates except Roshnai Gate in an effort to de-fortify the city.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 28^th, 2017.