23 May 2004	Sunday	03 Rabi-us-Saani 1425

PESHAWAR, May 22: The mushrooming of apartment buildings in the city pose a potential threat to place of cultural significance besides spoiling the conservation efforts to put this ancient city on the World Heritage list.

Old places of worship of religious minorities, specially those belonging to the Hindu and Sikh communities, are being razed and being converted into shopping plazas. A Sikh temple, Gurdwara Biba Singh, inside the walled-city has collapsed because of negligence, while many others face demolition at the hands of land-grabbers and government authorities.

The Cantonment authorities' postponed their plan to remove a temple, Balmeek Mandir, in Kala Bari in Peshawar's Saddar area after the Balmeek community launched a protest drive to stop the demolition of their place of worship. An old temple has already been demolished in the Ram Pura market in the city.

The demolition of another old Hindu building, Karam Chand Hall, in the Cantonment area is also on the cards. The hall, built in 1933, is presently serving as a carpet weaving training centre.

After partition, the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) took over possession of the building, subsequently handing it over to the Sarhad Small Industries Development Board on lease in 1963.

Now, the SSIDB has decided to close down the carpet weaving centre and build a shopping plaza on the site.

SSIDB officials said that the provincial industry department was negotiating with the ETPB to acquire the property permanently to construct a plaza, which would serve as a handicraft outlet as well as a commercial centre.

However, an official of the ETPB said that initially it had been decided to hand over the building to the industry department, but the trust had later revised its decision.

He said that the ETPB had now decided to build a commercial centre on the site to increase its revenue and the architectural department had been directed to finalise the draft design of the proposed commercial centre.

The Director archeology and museums, NWFP, Dr Ihsan Ali, said that the government had limited resources to acquire ancient buildings in connection with the conservation of the city's heritage. He said that under the provincial Antiquity Act a building more than 70 years old had to be included in the heritage list.

The director said that the government in collaboration with the Unesco included more than 50 sites in the city in the heritage list, while documentation of more sites was under process.