Cultural heritage: CHC threatens court action over construction at Shahi Bagh

Says continuing work at the historic garden violates PHC orders.

PESHAWAR: The Cultural Heritage Council (CHC), a civic organisation dedicated to preserving Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s (K-P) heritage, said on Sunday it will move to court to stop ongoing construction work at Shahi Bagh.

Speaking at an open air seminar held at the historic garden, CHC President and writer Younas Qiyasi said renovation and construction work was continuing at Shahi Bagh despite orders from the court to stop any kind of change to its 610 kanals of land.

Qiyasi maintained his organisation will approach the court again if the orders continue to be violated. He said the CHC has no political ambitions and that its sole aim is the preservation of the province’s cultural heritage. Qiyasi blamed both government departments and public representatives for the destruction of K-P’s culture.



Mansoor Ahmed Khan, a member of the Institute of Architects Pakistan (IAP), claimed the situation regarding preservation of cultural heritage was grave. He regretted the fact that the government did not possess a complete list of historical sites, adding that a cultural mapping project was abandoned some time ago.

Khan said the government adopted the Federal Antiquities Act in 1997, but stressed the provincial government needed to do more than just impose a federal law. He also said the IAP was willing to work on restoration projects in the province free of charge.

Dr Adil Zareef said public interest in these issues had revived hopes of the culture’s survival. He urged citizens to take an interest in the city’s affairs and warned that if K-P did not follow Sindh and Punjab in preserving and listing historical sites, the province’s heritage trail would slowly disappear at the hands of land and commission mafias.

Tahir Khattak, a prominent architect, maintained Peshawar is one of the world’s oldest cities. “We can compare it to Greek and Roman civilisations,” he said. Khattak claimed he was involved with the Shahi Bagh renovation project, but backed off sensing the government’s non-serious attitude towards the garden’s conservation.

CHC general secretary Shakil Wahidullah Khan informed participants that two more meetings, one at Gor Khatri and the other at Wazir Bagh, would be organised in the coming days to draw attention to this issue.

He said the Peshawar High Court (PHC) had ordered authorities to remove encroachments from Shahi Bagh and recover its 610 kanals of land in October 2012. The current remodelling project at Shahi Bagh which is attempting to imitate the design of Shalimar Bagh Lahore is in violation of court orders and turning the park into a historical graveyard, he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 18^th, 2013.