Taking over: Unauthorised access to Lahore Fort to be stopped

Some guides narrate false stories about the fort.

LAHORE:

The Walled City of Lahore Authority (WCLA) would soon take appropriate steps to prevent tourist guides at Lahore Fort from accessing places that have been closed to visitors, Deputy Director Tania Qureshi said on Saturday.

She had been asked to comment on an exercise by some guides to offer access to the locked or cordoned off areas to visitors they accompany.

There have been other complaints against the guides as well. Some of them narrate false stories, including some about Mughal era artifacts stowed away at the fort.

The price for the unauthorised adventures depends on the haggling capabilities of visitors.

“We will replace the locks with more secure ones. The keys will not be easy to replicate,” Qureshi told The Express Tribune.

She said the WCLA, which has recently been given the administrative control of the fort, also planned to recruit its own guides. “We have had meetings with guides from the Archeology Department and plan to train them the way we have trained our guides.”

There are various reasons for barring access to some of the fort’s areas. Some places at the fort, including the Sheesh Mahal, have undergone so much damage over the years that they cannot withstand more visitors. Others have been locked for security reasons.

“There is no light in some of the places. Some are being used as store rooms by the department,” said Afzal Khan, the Archeology Department Deputy Director.

He said that it had been learnt that some of the guides at the fort had made duplicate keys apparently with the connivance of the fort employees.

Some of the guides The Express Tribune spoke to said they had earlier been on the fort staff.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 4^th, 2015.