LAHORE, May 19: Visitors to Murree, the Punjab’s prime summer attraction, would not enjoy any cultural activity this year too as there is no plan so far to rebuild the hill station’s arts council which collapsed owing to digging for a plaza by an influential private party despite a ban by the tehsil administration.

“Submission of a tentative building plan for the arts council is the only step taken so far. And the most important development is that the private party has again started building the plaza,” senior Punjab government officers informed Dawn on Friday.

The multi-million Murree Arts Council was inaugurated by the then Punjab chief minister, Mian Nawaz Sharif in 1989. Spreading over three kanals and 10 marlas prime land over a hillock on The Mall near the GPO, the building was designed by Nayyar Ali Dada.

It served as the only hub of cultural activities, including exhibitions of various kinds, music and drama, over the years compensating for the closure of three cinema houses in Murree.

According to officials, there has been a ban on constructing plazas in Murree for the past three years. But two years ago a plan was submitted to construct a plaza at the foot of the hill over which the arts council building was situated.

The plaza was to be built on The Mall, but the plan was rejected on the grounds that digging at the foot of the hill would damage the arts council building.

But, they said, the party was allegedly allowed to build it on Jan 11, 2005, which started breaking the hill allegedly through blasting on Jan 14. The Murree Arts Council resident director approached the tehsil nazim and municipal officer, besides the Rawalpindi DCO to have the digging stopped as it posed imminent threat to the council building.

The administration finally ordered stoppage of the digging on Feb 2 as a result of further correspondence by the arts council management, but it continued. As a result, the main hall of the arts council and its offices collapsed on Feb 9.

Some officials said the breaking of the hill through blasting developed cracks in the floor of the arts council and it collapsed after heavy snowfall.

Officials said the matter was reported to the higher authorities and it was twice inquired by the chief minister’s inspection team. As a result, Murree TMO Irfan Salim Butt was suspended.

The plaza construction was stopped, but according to the latest information it had been resumed last week, they said.

They said the party was influential and had links with the powerful circles in the province. But its ‘might’ had rendered a loss of millions of rupees to the government and deprived the people of the only entertainment during vacation.

Senior government officials in the Punjab information and culture department confirmed it and said allocations for the reconstruction of the arts council would be made in the next budget. But they were not sure when it would be re-built.

“There is no such problem regarding the construction of an arts council building in Faisalabad. But the project is continuing for the past four years,” they said.