LAHORE, May 5: A plaza, illegally built over the land of the historic Chauburji Gardens, stands erected despite orders by a court of law and an army team’s recommendations.
Land grabbers built the plaza with the help of some government officials over the land adjacent to the 17th century entrance to the garden, made by Emperor Alamgir in the memory of his beloved daughter Zeb-un-Nisa. The princess lies buried in her desolate mausoleum along Multan Road near Samanabad Mor amidst houses and shops around.
According to the documents available with the archaeology department, property dealer Muhammad Shafiq Chattha and his brothers grabbed around five to seven kanals plot attached to Chauburji monument and started constructing a plaza over it in 1987.
The archaeology department approached a court of law which ordered stoppage of the construction.
Chattha brothers obeyed the orders till 1998 when they succeded in getting exemption letters from the Lahore Development Authority and resumed construction of what they called the Chauburji Towers.
This stunned the archaeology department authorities who lodged a protest with the LDA and the Punjab government, demanding a probe into the matter.
According to Archaeology Department (Northern Circle) director Qasim Ali Qasim, investigations revealed that FIA’s Assistant Director Ahsen Latif — stated to be a nephew of Begum Kulsoom Nawaz — facilitated Chattha brothers in the process.
Archaeology Department’s Technical Assistant Khwaja Abdus Samad was also got arrested by the FIA at the behest of Ahsen Latif for pursuing the case, he alleged.
Mr Shah said that Ahsen was removed from service when army took over in October 1998 and a special military team was constituted to investigate the case.
The military team declared the construction illegal and the exemption letters from the LDA invalid. It recommended action against the officials involved in the fraud and remained posted as LDA’s director-general, land development director, land acquisition collector, patwari, tehsildar and qanoongo concerned during 1985 to 1998.
It recommended registration of a case against Akbar Hussain, Muhammad Tufail and Abdul Hameed for selling disputed land to the Chattha brothers. The same action was also suggested against other for manipulating the government land, with recommendations to refer the matter to NAB or RAB.
Constructed in 1646 AD, the garden was damaged during heavy floods in 1839 which washed away western part of Lahore. One tower of Chauburji also fell as a result of the flood. It was re-built in 1966.
In 1913, Chauburji was declared a protected monument. A Chauburji development scheme was also introduced to restore the garden.
In 1966, the Lahore Improvement Trust adopted a resolution to build a garden around the Chauburji but the plan could has yet to be materialized.
Various people had, meanwhile, encroached upon a large chunk of Chauburji land without any let or hindrance. The government eventually paid money to 20 encroachers in 1976-77, acquiring 22kanals of Chauburji. Nothing could be done about the remaining land because of the construction of roads there.
The Punjab government sold these 22 kanals to the archaeology department against Rs191,714. Interestingly, only 14 kanals were without any encroachment.
Akbar Hussain, Muhammad Tufail and Abdul Hamid who sold the plaza land to the Chattha brothers, meanwhile, surfaced with the claim that they too possessed some land for which there were not given any compensation. They moved a court of law but their petition was dismissed.
