ISLAMABAD: The World Heritage Committee at its meeting which concluded in Manama on Wednesday decided to not place the Shalamar Gardens and Fort, Lahore, on the list of World Heritage in Danger.

This was confirmed by an official of Unesco from Paris to this correspondent. Three sites in Kenya, Pakistan and Nepal were slated to be put on the list by the 21-member committee headed by Ambassador Sheikha Haya Al-Khalifa of Bahrain.

A Pakistan delegation, headed by permanent delegate to Unesco in Paris Ambassador Moinul Haque, defended its case. The delegation included managing director of the Punjab Mass Transit Authority Sibtain Fazal Halim and officials from Punjab’s archaeology department as well as engineering department of the Lahore Development Authority.

The committee considered a report of the joint world heritage centre reactive monitoring mission to the Fort and Shalamar Gardens. The report felt that the ‘Orange Line Metro’ was already a reality and there was no alternative. It became clear to the mission that the provision of a metro for Lahore did not mean that it had to pass directly in front of the Shalamar Gardens. Two alternative schemes that could have provided a solution to a metro alignment were not taken forward by the provincial government, it observed.

The fact that these were not considered, the report added, and that the World Heritage Committee was not appropriately informed of details of this major infrastructure project highlighted fundamental weaknesses in the protection and planning of the property, which must be urgently addressed.

The mission stressed the need to adequately manage and effectively control the encroachment and urban development in and around the two places, and in that regard the Punjab government should immediately undertake setting studies and implement procedures when proposing an enlargement of the Shalamar Gardens’ buffer zone.

In a set of recommendations, the mission asked the Punjab government to rehabilitate the land immediately to the west of the Shalamar Gardens, which comprises historical buildings, and incorporate services for the site visitors. The area’s main front side on the pedestrian GT Road should be treated accordingly, it added.

It was recommended to introduce environmental instruments in the buffer zone; implement control for height and construction regulations and remove all inappropriate structures; and install underground infrastructure.

Published in Dawn, July 5th, 2018