LAHORE, Nov 16: Poets and writers on Thursday joined employees of the Pak Tea House to demand restoration of the historical place that had been a meeting point of literary giants even before partition.

The administration of the Young Men’s Christians Association (YMCA) had organised the demonstration outside the Pak Tea House on Thursday after the occupants of the place again attempted to convert it into a tyre shop on Wednesday night.

Known columnist Intizar Husain had also come to join the demonstration, but he was made to sit on a chair nearby by the participants who included Sarfraz Syed, Aamir Fraz, Ahmad Hammad, Kunwal Feroze, Zahid Nabi, Erish Mubarik, Javed Aftab and Ziaul Hasan.

Holding banners inscribed with their demands, the participants remained outside the tea house for half an hour.

Meanwhile, a civil court has stopped the occupants of the teahouse from converting it into a tyre shop.

They had been directed by the court to maintain status quo till Nov 28 when the matter would again be taken up.

YMCA secretary John Shaffaq had submitted before Civil Judge Rashid Javed Rana that the Pak Tea House had been the property of the association that was rented out to Siraj Din.

After his death, his son Zahid Husain attempted to change the nomenclature of the teahouse but a court of law debarred him from doing so on the grounds that the place had been the meeting point of literary people since long and its nomenclature could not be changed because of its historical importance.

But the tenant ignored the court orders and started digging up the place to make a ramp there in order to start tyres business at the spot.