PESHAWAR: The once tallest building with 10 storeys, known as Prithviraj Kapoor Haveli, in Peshawar city is still braving the ravages of time as it has completed century of its magnificent foundation.

The rectangular Kapoor Haveli, with 40 spacious rooms spread over an area of 4,625 square feet, is located in Dhaki Munawar Shah near the famous Qissa Khwani Bazaar and in the murky and narrow lane leading downward to Andar Shehr jewellery market.

According to a wooden slab, tucked inside the entrance of Kapoor Haveli, the construction of the house had been started in 1918 and completed in 1922. Its decorative facade had been constructed with brick masonry and variety of arches and overhanging balconies, which used to be an essential element of a typical Hindu architecture blended with Mughal structural art features.

Govt has allocated Rs500 million for conservation of heritage sites in Peshawar

The once towering magnificent structure with 10 storeys has completed 100 years but unfortunately lost half of its torso to careless inheritors. Two years ago, its owners had demolished two upper storeys of the building but then archaeology department halted its onward vandalism.

Being birthplace of the Indian cinema legend Prithviraj, father of Raj Kapoor, Shammi Kapoor and Shashi Kapoor, the Haveli in the walled city of Peshawar enjoys a widespread fame and is revered by Peshawrites. In the recent past, foreign tourists and local visitors would turn up to have a view of the old glory, an emblem of legacy of the celebrated Bollywood stars.

Haji Abdur Rahim, 75, a local resident told this scribe that after the partition when Kapoors left the house, some opportunists in the city had grabbed it.

Khushal Rasool, a resident of Charsadda, he said bought it after it was auctioned in 1968. He said that the inmates of the old house had demolished its three upper storeys as an earthquake had caused serious damage to it.

“The frontal portion is in shambles and the interior is also in dilapidated condition due to its rough use by the tenants. Prithviraj’s youngest son, Shashi Kapoor, and Raj Kapoor’s sons Randhir and Rishi, came to Peshawar in 1990 and filmed their old family house. They also took some earth from here as a mark of sanctity and love for their past family abode,” said Mr Rahim.

Nawazud Din, spokesperson for archaeology department, said that government had allocated Rs500 million for conservation and uplift of all such buildings and heritage sties in Peshawar city including ancestral homes of Bollywood stars of the yore days --Dillip Kumar and Raj Kapoor.

He said after completion of documentation and inventory of the old sites, work on them would be started in March this year. He said that ambitious project ‘conservation of the walled city of Peshawar’ would help to restore the past glory of the old city. “Under the Antiquity Act, 2016, no one will demolish or alter such cultural and heritage sites. The said Act gives protection to all heritage sites and structures,” he added.

Mohammad Ibrahim Zia, a historian, said that large number of heritage sites in the province suffered owing to negligence and vandalism. He said that he had been writing profusely on the issue of conservation of important archaeological and cultural sites in and around Peshawar for the last two decades but the authorities would not bother about his pleas.

Published in Dawn, January 13th, 2018