The people of any country move along in history from one stage to another. As they travel they leave their footprints on Mother Earth, but beyond that they develop their own culture and customs. They leave behind some images, structures, signs, symbols, customs that must always be respected and enjoyed.

The places of worship they owned and the institutions they built tell a rich story which no human being can adequately explain, one has to see those places of worship to understand the development of the people walking on this earth - our common home. Unesco decided to preserve these buildings or sites as heritage.

To give a concrete example of the past one must visit the Museum in Istanbul. Despite all the fighting and intrigues, they have managed to keep such a beautiful site that thousands of tourists come daily to Istanbul to visit the museum. The church was built in the fifth century. Istanbul got conquered. The church became a mosque. Today it is a museum. One walks with the guide and whole volumes of knowledge experiences unfold before one’s very eyes.

In Lahore, there are a number of such places. I shall restrict myself to a few churches that have existed for over one hundred years. On the route of Orange Line, there are the following churches, St Paul Presbyterian Church, St Andrew Presbyterian Church, Naulakha Church and the Cathedral Church of the Resurrection.

Any tourist guide will delight in giving details of these magnificent churches. Dr Majeed Abel told me at Naulakha Church that work of the missions began in East Punjab and Lahore in 1833. From that time till 1853 efforts were made to meld a community together with the success that Naulakha Church services began in 1853. Others gave me quite an account of how the people grew in knowledge and faith, beginning in Ludhiana, in 1834, onwards then groups moved to Chandigarh and Jalandhar. From there they moved to Lahore. It is a whole history. Every brick of the building tells a long story. Let us preserve these buildings as they are.

But the visual impairment of Naulakha Church in the name of progress is a big drawback, while St Andrew Presbyterian Church will incur structural damage. Damaging these churches would be a tragedy. This tragedy will not only hurt the sentiments of the Christians but it will affect the soul of Lahore. The city boasts of a tolerant past, of a mood of enjoyment and recreation. When some extremists broke Buddhists statues in neighboring Afghanistan, we said, how intolerant those prejudiced people can be, and now we ourselves in the name of development and progress, want to affect the places of worship of communities. Are we just as bad as the people who destroyed the historic past in Palmyra, Syria? When that happened, we said to ourselves thank God, Pakistan is more respectful to heritage and places of worship. Will we do the same now in the name of need of modern living, a Mass Transit system? It is good that the matter is before the Supreme Court, surely our judges are able to study this matter very seriously and make a mature judgement. We will wait for it with patience and hope.

Because places of heritage are very important for the world at large, let us preserve them and not even go close to spoiling its beauty and splendour. Let not anything impair its beauty.

More than the Christians themselves, the civil society organisations felt the threat of losing these historical sites that they have known from their childhood. They decided to challenge the scheme of the government known as the Orange Line. They are not against the mass transit system, far from it they want to have a good modern mass transit system but not one that is not well thought out. They do not want a haphazard plan which will destroy the richness of the city for all time to come. A plan that the Lahore High Court refused to accept.

The residents want the mass transit system and with it the best of modern technology. In order to have the best of both worlds they are proposing an underground bore tunnel somewhat similar to the tunnel built in New Delhi to safeguard the city’s heritage. In Lahore, this tunnel will be from Zebunissa’s tomb to Shalimar Gardens. It will leave the city’s look intact, it will leave the residences of people safe and the heritage of the country will be left intact for generations to enjoy the cultural glory of the past.

Let us prove that we can be good citizens, preserve the past and step into the modern era with grace and dignity.

Published in Dawn, June 14th, 2017