On the famous stage of the old walled city’s Mochi Gate ground stood some of the greatest men and women of the sub-continent. Among them was Jinnah, Allama Iqbal, Nehru, Kripalani, poets like Daman and lastly ZA Bhutto. That is our real history.

The question all of us must today ask yourselves is that the current ‘construction-destruction’ going on is it part of an effort by the illiterate to destroy our past. That stage has been demolished by the Sharif chief minister Maryam Nawaz. She plans to build six parking plazas in public parks – itself an illegality - over the next one year, with 15 to follow later.

If ultimately these public spaces and the parking plazas are ‘privatised’- you never know - then our readers can well imagine who are the real beneficiaries of this ‘public money’ exercise. History just does not matter to these leaders backed by dubious bureaucrats. But so as not to be too partial for one knows these ‘walnuts in pocket wrestler’ family from our school days, let us look at the ‘Macro Lahore’ picture.

Clearly Lahore needs over 500 parking plazas, especially for motorcycles. The troubles started when the Lahore Omnibus Service with its over 975 buses collapsed because they were not maintained and ‘rusted away’. Plus Gen. Ayub’s men borrowed a massive amount from the LOS, leading to its collapse. The almost ten million population then was without public transport.

Without buses the over 14 million population of Lahore needed transport. So today, as the Lahore Police website tells us, Lahore has the world’s largest motorcycle population of 4.3 million. It breaks down to two motorcycles per family of seven persons. Without buses roads are full of motorcycles. It was a ‘people’s solution’.

The motorcar population of Lahore - speaking of officially registered ones - stand at two million, or one car for every family of seven persons. This means that, according to UNO statistics, Lahore has 21 cars per 1,000 persons. They also point out that Lahore has the fastest motorcar population growth. Imagine.

Now if as a Lahori you travel towards the Lower Mall area, where the lower courts are located, in the afternoon the number of parked motorcycles and cars completely block traffic. A top bureaucrat informs that this was a problem that our CM wanted to solve. So in a meeting she asked which other areas have traffic congestion and 21 areas were marked out as having severe traffic problems.

So in a meeting the top six areas were marked out and plans to build huge parking plazas were ordered. I am avoiding the financial size of the picture, for our readers can well judge just where the contracts will end up.

So work has started at Gol Bagh (Nasser Bagh), Mochi Gate ground, Data Darbar, the Mohni Road end near the second-hand parts markets, at Mughalpura near the Budhu da Awa, and outside Taxali Gate next to the ancient Christian Graveyard. Without doubt a massive undertaking.

My understanding is that more areas with massive parking problems will also have such undertakings. The point is that what other solutions exist. Let us widen our focus and look at a city like London, or even Kolkata in Indian Bengal.

London has a population of just over 9.8 million, which comes to about 70 per cent of Lahore’s population. Here wealth does not matter that much, what we are looking at is human mobility. London has 8,797 buses, both double-decker and single-deckers. That comes to roughly a bus per 1,000 citizens of London. By this standard Lahore needs 12,000 buses touching every major road.

Besides this London has an amazing underground train service which caters to 80 per cent of all daily in-coming passengers. So with buses and trains galore, they handle almost the entire travelling persons in the city with motorcyclists and cars in small numbers.

The Kolkata India underground has a daily metro train passenger population of over 600,000. Kolkata has over 3,500 buses, which before the Covid times was over 6,000. Their numbers are growing by the day. The population of Kolkata is 20.3 million. They also have a massive motorcycle and car problem.

So this means that Lahore needs at least 12,000 buses and there should be at least an attempt made to develop an underground train system. The Chinese are very good at this, and they need to be consulted. My suggestion is that repayment to them should be from the profits of the proposed train system.

But back to the parking plaza programme underway. One of the main victims in terms of historical damage will be the Circular Garden of the old walled city, and also the historic gateways being demolished. This is entirely ‘illegal’. Here we have a contradiction in terms of the existing two cultural institutions that are eating into one another.

The Aga Khan-initiated Walled City of Lahore Authority (WCLA) has been confronted by a Nawaz Sharif-created Lahore Authority for Heritage Revival (LAHR), mainly a bureaucracy-run organisation subservient to the Sharifs. All these parking plazas are the work of the LAHR, as they have the resources – plus a few dubious civilians.

But then it just cannot be ignored that some historic sites have been damaged in that they now cease to exist. Take the example of the ‘Budhu da Awa’ graveyards, which had Mughal-era graves plus Sikh-era buildings. That is no more, and a parking plaza is coming up there. By Unesco standards this is criminal.

Then there is the land next to the graveyard outside Taxali gate. Officially it is denied that they have crept into the Mughal-era Christian graveyard, but one has just to visit the place to see the slight use of their space.

The most damaging work is taking place outside Bhati Gate, where the old residential buildings are set to be demolished. Dev Anand’s house as also that of Naeem Bukhari are set to disappear. The reason: they want to enlarge the traffic area to avoid congestions. But nearby is Mohni Road, where once dwelled the family of our rulers – maternal side only.

People living on Mohni Road were suddenly approached by armed guards who asked them to vacate their houses, where they had been living since pre-Partition times. They were thrown out and the cranes moved in. By the evening nothing but rubble could be seen. The reason given was the enlargement of road traffic to make the area ‘beautiful’. Imagine.

In the same way the much-visited Data Darbar is also going to be redone. “Redone”? This is baffling given that Gen. Zia the tyrant did the same. Piety seems to attract the ‘armed’. My very close sources tell me that the numerous lanes opposite the shrine where different people like ‘eunuchs’ and Pathans and a ‘pickpocket population’ live there.

The pickpockets still have an alphabet book which the local police ‘once’ provided them. When I ran the story many many years ago as a reporter, the IG Punjab got my reporting beat changed. The airport beat saw Gen. Z getting me thrashed. The present man’s record is before everyone.

As I researched different ‘parking plazas’ my dear friend Sheero of Bhati Gate proposed that I suggest that the Rang Mahal Mission School also be knocked down for a parking plaza. Old Lahoris have a lovely ‘biting’ sense of humour. But you never know these days.

Published in Dawn, December 7th, 2025