BAHAWALPUR: Khwaja Mueenuddin Mehbub Koreja, the custodian of Darbar Faridia, Kot Mithan, has opposed the proposal to shift the decaying skeleton of the historical Indus Queen, the historical steamer, from Kot Mithan to the Bahawalpur Museum for its rehabilitation and exhibition.

In a post on the facebook page of Koreja on Saturday, his spokesman made a post, saying the proposal of shifting the Indus Queen from Kot Mithan was ‘unsuitable’.

He claimed the wreckage of the Indus Queen presently was attached with the name of Khawaja Ghulam Farid and it was a historical heritage of Chachran and Kot Mithan Sharif.

He was of the opinion that after necessary repair and restoration, the Indus Queen should be exhibited at Khawaja Farid Museum at Kot Mithan.

Mujahid Jatoi, a scholar and expert on Sufi poet Khawaja Ghulam Farid’s works, in his message on social media, also remarked that retired deputy commissioner of Rajanpur, Amanullah Ghazi, had made a plan to preserve the Indus Queen.

It may be recalled that the newly-constituted board of governors (BoG) of the Bahawalpur Museum at a recent meeting chaired by Bahawalpur Commissioner Raja Jahangir Anwar decided to shift the wreckage of Indus Queen from Kot Mithan to the museum for its restoration and exhibition for the visitors on the museum premises. Presently, a special committee is working on the matter.

Nawab of Bahawalpur Sadiq Muhammad Khan Abbasi-IV had got the Indus Queen built in 1867 by the Thomas Reid and Sons in the city of Paisley, Scotland.

The Nawab used it for transportation of the royal family when the river Sutlej was running in full flow near the city.

Initially, it got the name of the Sutlej Queen. The three-storey steamer had separate male and female sections and could accommodate 400 guests.

However, after the Partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947 and later signing of the Indus Waters Treaty during the regime of Gen Ayub Khan, the Sutlej started drying due to water shortage and the late Sadiq Abbasi-V shifted the ship to river Indus and renamed it the Indus Queen.

He dedicated it for the service of the devotees of Khawaja Ghulam Farid for their transportation from Kot Mithan to Chachran Sharif.

After the construction of the Ghazighat Bridge, the Indus Queen stopped running in the river Sindh too. It has decayed at Mithan Kot over the years and nobody, from the government as well as private persons or organisations, took care of it or paid attention to its restoration.

Now there is a reaction when the authorities decided to restore it to save it from complete decay and exhibit it at the Bahawalpur Museum.

Published in Dawn, November 27th, 2022