Archaeology dept refutes Lahore Conservation Society’s claims

Says assertions they made were factually incorrect and actually misleading

LAHORE: The archaeology department has refuted the claims made by the Lahore Conservation Society that the government has not been given a go-ahead from the World Heritage Committee to complete the construction of Orange Line Metro Train (OLMT) near Shalimar Gardens.

This was stated in response to a press conference of Lahore Conservation Society held on Wednesday. The archaeology department has clarified that claims they made, were factually incorrect and actually misleading. It added that that in fact the Lahore Conservation Society and other organisations associated with it, have been leading a campaign against the execution of Lahore OLMT project on the basis of flawed understanding and baseless assertions.



They have been perpetually feeding wrong information to the World Heritage Centre (Secretariat) which unfortunately became the basis for the centre to put up draft decisions which were unjustified as not being supported by any credible evidence whatsoever, for consideration of the World Heritage Committee (WHC).

It may be noted that the World Heritage Centre only acts as the secretariat of the WHC and the real authority vests in the WHC, which takes decisions on matters presented before it. The Pakistan state party participated in the 41st session of the WHC held in Krakow, Poland between July 2 and July 12, 2017.

Imrana Tiwana of Lahore Conservation Society was also present at the 41st session of WHC to present her point of view and, on her request, was also given the opportunity to address the WHC on the concerns her organisation had. The Pakistan state party presented its point of view based on true and correct facts stemming from technical data and conclusions and recommendations of various studies conducted to-date for this project.

The authors of the press release issued to the press were obviously frustrated as their point of view was not accepted by the WHC.

All unjustified draft decisions put up by the World Heritage Centre, regarding suspension of work on the project, affecting a change in alignment in front of Shalamar Gardens and for placing the gardens on the list of World Heritage in danger were considered and categorically rejected by the World Heritage Committee.

The letters addressed to Kamil Khan Mumtaz dated July 10, 2017 and to Farida Shaheed July 12, 2017 by director Wold Heritage Centre are reflective of great consternation and disappointment of the addressees about rejection of their baseless and nefarious agenda by the World Heritage Committee at its 41st session.



Some of the important draft decisions put up by the World Heritage Centre and the final decisions of the World Heritage Committee were that the World Heritage Centre had indicated in the draft decisions that further construction work to the East and West of Shalamar Gardens is having an ascertained impact on the setting and integrity of the property. The World Heritage Committee rejected this assertion and decided to delete the paragraph, containing this baseless conclusion.

Furthermore, the World Heritage Centre had indicated in the draft decisions that no exhaustive impact assessments had been undertaken for the project to determine impacts on outstanding universal value of Shalamar Gardens and how these might be mitigated. The World Heritage Committee considered and also rejected this unjustified assertion and decided to delete the relevant paragraph.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, July 21^st, 2017.