Punjab govt fails to protect historic sites

Many buildings brought under commercial use in past decades

FAISALABAD:

Owing to apathy of the district administration and local bodies towards the preservation of heritage, more than three dozen historic buildings in the city have been converted to commercial use.

A rest house was established in 1924 for passengers outside Karkhana bazaar, where peasants and traders used to stay at night after arriving in the city to sell and purchase wheat, but it was demolished in 1982 by the municipal corporation to build a parking facility. After the plan was abandoned, the place is being used for private business.

The district council also demolishing the historic ‘Zail Ghar’ where villagers and officials of surrounding areas sat together to share light moments when they visited the city. The place is now being used for a parking stand. Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah stayed at the Colonel Hayat bungalow during his mass contact movement in 1946 to mobilise public support for the creation of Pakistan. The house was constructed in 1942. However, the beautiful building was neither taken over by the archaeology department nor the local government made arrangements to preserve it. The owners of the house later settled abroad and sold it, where a bank is operating nowadays.

Likewise, historic buildings such as the small Zail Ghar, municipal corporation office, Thakar building Rail bazaar, Bhola Ram building, Pub House Railway Road, Asko museum, Jewan Das building, Colony Bank, Lyallpur Cotton Mills, old building of Khalsa College and old Muslim League buildings have been lost due to negligence of the departments concerned.

Local historian Mian Bashir Ijaz told The Express Tribune that it was binding under section 7 of Punjab Development of Cities Act 1976, and sections 77(d) and 87(n) of Punjab Local Government Act 2014 on the Faisalabad Development Authority, Zila Council and Municipal Corporation to allocate ample budget annually for the preservation of national assets and historic buildings. However, the authorities have not allocated funds for the purpose, he lamented.

He said the Lyallpur Heritage Foundation had adopted 11 historic buildings out of the 37 identified for renovation, while the remaining buildings were awaiting attention of the authorities concerned.

Assistant Commissioner City Sayyid Ayub Bukhari said he had sent a summary for approval of required funds to preserve the Clock Tower intersection, Zila Council, Gumti chowk and Gurdwara buildings but after the outbreak of Covid-19 the district government’s attention was diverted towards remedial measures. He said that as soon as normalcy was restored, the authorities would try their best to save the historical monuments.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 14^th, 2020.