Finishing touches: LHC’s eastern wing almost ready for opening

The renovation team says they tried their best to stay true to the original design.

LAHORE:

Restoration of the eastern wing of the Lahore High Court is almost complete and is expected to be ready for unveiling by May 29.

The inauguration ceremony is expected to take place on May 30 and several serving and eminent retired judges and lawyers would be invited. This is the first ever restoration project at the Lahore High Court.

Sayed Ali Mehdi, an architect and member of the renovation team, told The Express Tribune that the work was almost complete and they were adding final touches to the building. He said presently they were cleaning up the place and polishing the woodwork. He said the LHC registrar had supervised the work to ensure there were no inordinate delays. He said a few days ago, the registrar had reprimanded the contractor for delay in finishing the work. Works Department sub-divisional officer Abdul Qayyum told The Express Tribune that the building would be ready for use “within a couple of days”. He said they had completed work on the ground floor and were presently working on the conference room on the first floor. Qayyum said the workers were mainly occupied with polishing the doors and windows in the eastern wing. He said the restored area included two courtrooms, two judges’ chambers with attached bathrooms, a kitchen, a room for secretaries, a conference room on the first floor, a bathroom on the first floor and a staircase. He said the restoration work included treating the roof, installing a wooden false ceiling, floor, wooden wall panelling, electrification, restoring windows and doors, canopies above the judges’ seats in two courtrooms.

The project began in April 2013 and the deadline for its completion was April 30, 2014. It had been delayed for a month. The Lahore High Court’s building is one of the oldest and most historic in the country. It has been declared as special premises under the Punjab Special Premises (Preservation) Ordinance 1985.

Kamil Khan Mumtaz, the consultant for the restoration, told The Express Tribune that the building had been restored to its original design and architecture. He said they had consulted the relevant drawings, studies and the original plan of the building to understand its original fabric, as the ceiling and wall panelling had been removed years ago and several of its distinguishing features had been removed.

He said necessary adjustments had been made to the floors and wooden ceilings in consideration of modern day standards and requirements. He said since there were no documents detailing the original design of the ceiling of the two courtrooms, they had reproduced the design of a ceiling in another courtroom.

He said the records showed that the floor was simply plastered with cement at that time, but they had decided to use marble chips.

He said they had copied the original design of the five-feet wooden panelling to the minutest detail. He said they had used lime (choona) and red brick powder (kairi) to repair walls.

Rs44.756 million had been approved for the project in the 2013-2014 budget. Expenditures of Rs6.553 million were made till June 30, 2013. Rs22.53 million of the Rs38 million released in the current fiscal year was spent.

West wing controversy

In 2004, the LHC administration had demolished the west wing of the LHC building, sparking protests by civil society activists, lawyers and students of the National College of Arts and the University of Punjab. They had declared it a violation of Section 5 of the Punjab Special Premises (Preservation) Ordinance 1985, as the LHC was listed as a protected building under a notification issued on March 21, 1985.

A three-member bench of the Supreme Court ordered the then LHC chief justice to constitute a committee to ensure that the building was reconstructed, keeping its original architectural features, design and façade. However, most features of the building were not paid attention to and an entirely different double-storey model was erected.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 28^th, 2014.