July 11, 2004

The decision by Islamabad to transfer the management of two key historical sites to the Punjab government has given rise to questions about its commitment to the cause of heritage

AT the beginning of 2004, a directive was taken by the former prime minister, Mir Jamali, at the special request of the Punjab Chief Minister, Chaudhry Pervez Elahi, to hand over the two historical and most financially profitable sites on the World Heritage list, the Lahore Fort and the Shalimar Gardens, to the Punjab government. The directive raised a raging controversy between the two relevant archaeological departments. According to official sources, the Punjab government had threatened that if the two sites were not transferred to it, the federal government would have to take up the responsibility of all such sites within the province. It now seems only a matter of months before the two sites become part of the Punjab government’s list of monuments.

But the question remains that what happens when the historical value of a heritage monument is removed from it. The most likely answer would be that without history to promote it in rank, the site sinks to the level of public convenience. And what happens to history when a heritage site is used as a centre of en famille public entertainment? The site turns irrelevant, some would confer, till history is no more, reducing the monument’s worth to little more than the value of its slag heap.

The fate of the Lahore Fort came that close to being called a historical monument on the way to losing history, till Unesco, not the Pakistan government, did something about it. In a report of the 24th session of the committee in 2000, the Shalimar Gardens and the Lahore Fort were ‘inscribed on the list of world heritage in danger’!

In a letter written to the committee, the government of Pakistan expressed its appreciation for continued assistance for the conservation and development of the Shalimar Gardens and the Lahore Fort. By nominating the two on the List of World Heritage in Danger, the state expressed its hope to increase public awareness both nationally and internationally on the importance of preserving these exemplary Mughal sites of world heritage value.

But did the government itself do anything to promote public awareness? “No” would be the prompt response of various archaeologists and conservationists. If anything, public awareness could not be worse than it already is about these magnificent structures swathed in history.

“People don’t know the history of these monuments. In a study which I undertook for the Lahore Fort, I realized how limited their knowledge was. Last year, on August 14, I was told that the Fort was visited by nearly 80,000 people. Very few knew that it consisted of 21 different monuments built in stages under successive Mughal emperors,” says Sajida Vandal, principal of the National College of Art and part of the group formed in 2003 for the conservation and development of the master plan for the Lahore Fort.

For most visitors, the Sheesh Mahal, built in 1631-32 by Shah Jehan, is not a reminder of the emperor’s undying love for his wife, Mumtaz Mahal. They immortalize the Chamber of Mirrors with the Indian silver screen’s classical beauty, Madhubala’s dance performance in K. Asif’s high-budget 1950s extravaganza, Mughal-i-Azam. “I have come to see the Sheesh Mahal where Anarkali did her last dance in front of Dilip Kumar and Prithvi Raj,” admits a visitor.

He knows not the history of the Sheesh Mahal. His interest lies in viewing the original set replicated in Mughal-i-Azam for Madhubala’s last dance. That is the most we will go in taking history lessons. That is the most level of awareness we will reach.

There are 392 monuments and archaeological sites in Pakistan which are protected under the Antiquities Act of 1975. Out of those 147 sites, 11 on the concurrent list fall under the protection of the federal government’s department of archaeology. The Punjab government is responsible for the restoration and conservation of 244 sites.

As heritage has never been a priority with any government, many archaeological sites and historical monuments are wearing away with time. Occupying the top of the list are the Lahore Fort and the world-famous Sheesh Mahal, the archetypal palace of an emperor’s love for his queen. After centuries of looting, neglect and termite erosion, the Sheesh Mahal is falling and is temporarily closed to public.

Despite being inscribed on the endangered list of world heritage, the Lahore Fort rakes in a lot of money for the government. On average, the Lahore Fort, protected by the federal department of archaeology, is visited by nearly 1.5 million people per month, making it commercially lucrative for the site’s contractor to pay Rs1 crore and Rs2,100,000 each month to the federal government.

Sources close to this newspaper quote the annual gate income of the Lahore Fort and the Shalimar Gardens comes roughly to Rs3 crores. But the annual maintenance budget for the entire province of the Punjab comes to a meagre Rs1.45 million. Out of that Annual Development Programme, the federal government has provided special funds of Rs6 to Rs7 million for the Lahore Fort, which lapses automatically at the end of each fiscal year.

“According to the Treasury Rules, the amount of Rs6 to Rs7 million should be spent within one fiscal year, otherwise it has to be returned. That in itself is a problem because conservation is a slow process,” explains Salim-ul-Haq, director north of the department of archaeology.

Statistics provided by this department show that from 2001 to 2002, a total of approximately 1,193,098 people visited the Lahore Fort. They had no idea of the afflictions. To them the closure of certain sections of the fort, including the Sheesh Mahal, meant that routine restoration work was going on. But the work was far from routine. By the early ‘90s, the Lahore Fort had reached a critical stage of architectural decay, and the time had come to revise the 1973 Master Plan for the Lahore Fort.

The Lahore Fort’s 1,600-foot northern wall had been badly damaged, caused by years of smoke-emitting heavy traffic of the close by Badami Bagh and the Circular Road. The sulphur dioxide and other hazardous fumes polluting the air have had a severely harmful effect on the structure of the Sheesh Mahal, changing the white marble to yellow.

Talking about the first Master Plan of 1973, Salim-ul-Haq explained that it was bifurcated into different segments and schemes. “There were different schemes for the eastern and the western porticoes (dalans), different for the Sheesh Mahal’s chambers and its courtyards and different for the Diwan-i-Khas and Diwan-i-Aam. Some routine maintenance work was carried out under the Annual Development Programme, but the master plan could not be implemented due to the slow disbursement of funds.”

The fort consists of 21 different monuments and most of them are on the northern side. They are the Musumman/Shah Burj, known as the Sheesh Mahal, the Naulakha Pavilion, Diwan-i-Aam, Diwan-i-Khas, Jehangir’s Quadrangle, Moti Masjid, Masti and Alamgiri Gates, etc. Listed as a protected monument by the department of archaeology in 1927, the fort was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1981. Even though each monument is of exemplary architectural splendour, the Sheesh Mahal forms the jewel in the fort’s crown.

The main decorative features of the 400-year-old Sheesh Mahal are the aina kari or convex-glass mosaic work with munabat kari or stucco tracery, gild work, pietra dura work, specially in the spandrels of the arches, and a skillfully carved marble screen in geometrical and tendril designs. “The chambers were originally decorated with fresco paintings, but later on glass mosaic work was executed on the walls,” says Salim-ul-Haq.

The worst-hit of the hurriedly undertaken conservation was the Sheesh Mahal’s ceiling which required extensive funds and expertise to preserve it. The glass mosaic work in delicate tracery had been damaged and split to a considerable extent. It was also feared that because of water seepage and the load of buildings built by the Sikhs on top of the Sheesh Mahal, its roof might collapse.

There was obviously an urgent need to develop a plan to save the fort’s 21 monuments. With the help of the Norwegian government’s grant of $900,000, conservation work on the Sheesh Mahal and development of a master plan for the Lahore Fort began. “As the funds are given to Unesco, which are then released to us periodically, it has created a management structure and framework for systematic evaluation. For this purpose, a team of national and international experts has put together to oversee the master plan. Two experts’ conferences were held last year to develop that plan,” explains Mr Haq.

In 1904-05, it was observed that the false ceiling of the main veranda of the Sheesh Mahal was being affected due to the heavy dead load added during the Sikh and British periods. After part of the plaster fell, it exposed two wooden beams in an advance stage of decay, which meant that the roof was corroding. From then onwards, the Sheesh Mahal’s ceiling was rent with one problem after another. Repair work was carried out all through the 1920s and ‘60s, but it was not comprehensive enough to save the ceiling.

In 1991-92, serious cracks in the ceiling were detected, caused by the absence of a buffer zone around the citadel and water seepage from an outdated hydraulic system. “According to the 1975 Antiquities Act, a buffer zone of 200 feet should encircle a historical monument beyond which no construction should take place. But obviously, the LDA has never bothered to look at the act or has simply ignored it. You can see the encroachments around the Lahore Fort which are severely affecting the site,” complains Mr Haq.

In 2002, a temporary ceiling was erected to support the original beams, which are now supported on a system of trussed beams. They carry much of the weight of the steel railway rails used to install steel hangers which clasp those beams and carry their weight. Pointing to the historical wooden beams supported by steel clamps now, Mr Haq explained that the conservation of the ceiling was done in two phases. “We had to first clean the ceiling and then start its conservation. It took us nine months to clean and conserve the ceiling. That huge pile of debris you see is not even one-third of what we had to remove. We had to clean out more than 18 tons of debris,” says Mr Haq. “Those are the remains of the Mughal-era wooden beams which have been put on hangers to arrest further corrosion. Hopefully, the new roof will be completed by August 2004,” he affirms.

With the conservation of Jehangir’s Quadrangle and the eastern portico complete, the Sheesh Mahal will hopefully be open to public sometime in September. The only fly in the ointment is the recent directive, taken at the beginning of this year by former Prime Minister Jamali to hand over the Lahore Fort and the Shalimar Gardens to the Punjab government. The directive came at the special request of the Punjab chief minister, Chaudhry Pervez Elahi, who wanted a free hand to hold receptions and cultural events at the fort and the Shalimar Gardens. “Can you imagine the ignorance of our politicians? They have no idea what such events can do to these centuries’ old sites,” fumes Sajida Vandal.

The hurriedly taken prime ministerial directive has given way to a raging controversy between the archaeological department of the Punjab and the same at the federal level. The two tiers of the government are locked in a bid to win control of the two most profitable sites inscribed on the World Heritage list — the Lahore Fort and the Shalimar Gardens. Sources inside the two departments reveal that both the provincial and the federal departments of archaeology are only interested in keeping those two sites under their financial and administrative control. “It’s all to do with the millions made each year from the two monuments. You can’t imagine how much those people make who are given different annual contracts. From gate-keeping to the kiosks set up at the sites, each year’s turnover is enough to make you a millionaire,” says a source.

With Sindh possessing only 30 or so monuments and Balochistan not having an archeological department, the two most powerful departments left to battle out the financial, and not conservation, are the Punjab and federal departments. The same source discloses that the Punjab government has gone a step further by threatening that if the fort and the Shalimar Gardens are not transferred to it, the federal government can just as well take up the responsibility of all the sites within the provincial ambit.

The debate to hand over the 144 monuments enlisted under the federal department of archaeology to the four provinces, which began last year, excluded the six monuments on the World Heritage list. It was decided by the government that those six monuments would be retained by the federal government. But the Jamali decree changed all that. Now, it is only a matter of months before the two sites become part of the Punjab government’s list of monuments.

Salim-ul-Haq retains that the Punjab provincial government does not have the personnel and the technical expertise for conservation. “You can see from the shabby work carried out at the Badshahi Mosque’s floor. The new floor has nothing to show of its Mughal heritage. I think the directive should be reconsidered and the fort and the Shalimar Gardens should be left to us,” asserts Mr Haq.

And then there is the fear of conservationists that work on the fort might be put on hold as the Punjab government is not fully capable of taking the responsibility of overseeing major works in conservation. “Look what they did to the Kamran Baradari! It is not a wise move to entrust world heritage monuments to the provincial archaeological department,” reproves a conservationist.

But Farzana Qureishi, director-general of the provincial department of archaeology, dismisses such pessimism. “Look, we already have 176 people working and have asked the federal government to create 55 additional posts to take care of the management of the Lahore Fort and Shalimar Gardens. Conservation will not be affected. I don’t see any problem in that. We are fully capable of doing our jobs,” says the assertive DG.

Whatever anyone’s assertion is, the monetary value of historical sites has overridden concern for conservation. It is not difficult to imagine what happens when money matters more than history.

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