Preserving the old: ‘Alteration will wreak havoc on LHC Bar building’

Supporters reject claims that extension work will disturb Kiani Hall’s architecture

LAHORE:

The original structure of the Lahore High Court Bar will soon undergo massive alteration to make space for a bigger bar room for women lawyers. Work in this regard has begun and workers have started digging a foundation for the room behind the women lawyers’ bar room at the front-right corner of the bar’s historic Kiani Hall. 

According to the plan, an additional 10X20 feet area will be added to the bar room. The bar room had been extended by 10 feet a few years ago to build a washroom for women lawyers. The recent expansion, though, will not only disturb the architecture of the historic bar building but could also affect ventilation and access to sunlight for the Old Lounge, washrooms and canteen. The attorney general’s office and a passageway into Kiani Hall’s forecourt are located in the same building.

Imrana Tiwana, environmental activist, told The Express Tribune that the bar ought to consider another option instead of disturbing the structure of a protected building. She said the building was protected under the Punjab Special Premises (Preservation) Ordinance, 1985, and a notification issued on March 21, 1985.

She said according to the notifications, no portion of the building could be demolished or altered. “Even the building’s view cannot be marred.” She agreed that the bar room for women lawyers was cramped. “However, the bar could consider shifting the women’s bar room elsewhere.”

Advocate Khalida Parveen, who is lobbying for an extension to the bar room, said it was necessary to change things according to need over time. She said the extension will not disturb Kiani Hall’s structure and that they were looking only to expand the women lawyers’ bar room in front of the hall.

Keeping requirements in view, several new buildings and structures had been constructed around Kiani Hall over the years, she said.

She said buildings for a dispensary, a passport office, the Karachi Shuhada Hall and the Kashmir Lounge had been constructed. A huge library building, too, was being constructed in the same area, she said. Why would anyone have problems with a minor extension to the women lawyers’ bar room, she said.

She said former chief justice Khawaja Sharif had approved the project.

LHCBA President Pir Masood Chishti said they were in the process of finalising the plan for the bar room’s extension. He said the number of women lawyers had increased exponentially over the years and they needed larger premises. He said one should try to think rationally and accommodate all members of the bar.

Advocate Maqbool Hussain Sheikh told The Express Tribune that some bar representatives had made the project a matter of their egos and wanted to go ahead with the extension, come what may. He said he and several other lawyers had requested bar leaders not to wreak havoc on the historic building, “but they are bent on going ahead with it”.

Tiwana recalled that in 2004, the-then administration of the LHC had demolished the West Wing of the LHC building sparking protests from civil society activists, lawyers and students of the National College of Arts and University of Punjab.

She said a three-member bench of the Supreme Court had then ordered the LHC chief justice to constitute a committee to ensure that the building was reconstructed according to its original architectural features, design and façade. She said as head of that committee, she had recommended some construction in the area of the LHC without disturbing the view of the historic building and its structure.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 23^rd, 2015.