A FEDERAL cabinet decision about the status of a 17th century mausoleum and a mosque adjacent to the Railways Headquarters on Empress Road, that remained unimplemented for 25 years, might now be close to implementation in a slightly modified form.
Whether the recent initiative to resolve the issue can satisfy the city’s Christian clergy — a party to the dispute involving the 35-canals premises — remains to be seen. Federal Minister for Minorities Affairs Col SK Tressler (retired) remained closeted with the Archaeology Department officials here for hours the other day to see the things come to an amicable settlement.
Should the new settlement be implemented, the Christian community, would need to purchase, at market rate, the 10 kanals land it would have received gratis under the original decision which it has resisted for so long.
THE MAUSOLEUM: Historian Muhammad Saleh Kamboh, author of Amal-i-Saleh, was associated with the court of Emperor Shah Jahan. Impressed by his scholarship and character, the Mughal monarch had given his son Mohyuddin — later Empror Aurangzeb Alamgir — under his tutelage. His brother Sheikh Inayatullah was the author of Bahar-i-Danish, the famous collection of classical Persian poetry.
Upon his death in AD 1659, the then Mughal rulers of Lahore buried Muhammad Saleh Kamboh “at a place in a mauza” (village). The village later came to be called Mauza Kamboh.
To the east of Saleh Kamboh’s mosque was his house where his descendants lived for decades. The dome of the mausoleum was destroyed and Saleh’s grave razed to the ground during the Sikh rule. The British rulers later built the dome but did not restore the grave.
CHURCH: Also during the British period, a Christian community took over the premises and raised a wooden gallery on the mausoleum premises. It later established the St Andrew’s Church at the place and lofted a cross over the main mausoleum building. The cross was later removed in view of the public reaction to it.
Possession of the land, however, remained an issue till 1976 when the federal cabinet decided that five kanals of the land be allocated to the mausoleum and another 20 kanals returned to the Pakistan Railways. The cabinet decided that the church be allowed to retain 10 kanals of the land.
The Christian community did not allow the decision to be implemented. It did not even let the revenue officials enter the premises to make the measurements. The question was again raised in 1992. The federal cabinet merely reiterated the 1976 decision. Nor was the outcome any different.
PROTECTED: The building was declared a protected monument in 1994 under the Special Premises (Preservation) Act of the Punjab government. Fearing now that the provincial government might take over the premises, the Christian community started agitation against the decision.
It has now been decided to implement the cabinet decision to the extent of allocating five kanals land to the mausoleum and 20 kanals to the railways.
The Christian community has been allowed to purchase 10 kanals for the church at market price. It was on account of the decision related to the church that the minister was here. He tried to persuade his community to help implement the decision.
Under the recent decision the British era wooden gallery, where children under five years of age are currently taught, would also be vacated. The government has earmarked this place for the establishment of a library. —- Mahmood Zaman