Our irreplaceable and unique heritage

And why “progress” must always be inclusive of the past

In one episode of the erudite Shoaib Hashmi Sahib’s brilliant 1970s program series Such Gup (honest gossip), there is a Newscast from 2047, celebrating 100 years of Pakistan’s independence. With his signature terse sense of humor, Hashmi’s skit had foreseen much of what continues to happen today: floods in Karachi, occupation of the Parliament, the rise of the Tea Party etc.  One significant item in it was that in 2046 the last historical building in Lahore had been demolished….all for the progress of society.  Given how Lahore has been ravaged in recent months due to the Orange Line train that too could have turned out to be true, had it not been for the recent Judgment of the Lahore High Court.

The monumental (pun intended) judgment of Justice Abid Aziz Shiekh and Justice Shahid Karim, restraining the further development of the Orange Line train, is more than a mere breath of fresh air in an otherwise environment of despair.  Just when we thought that our Teflon-coated bulletproof rulers were the invincible, the High Court strikes and pulls them to earth.  Undoubtedly, the Punjab government will appeal the LHC decision but this time hopefully the outcome of the appeals will be different from what happened in the 2015 Lahore Signal Free Corridor appeal no 545 to 550 PLD.

The undisputable argument is that the current law (Antiquities Act 1975) that protects heritage sites and limits construction to within two hundred feet of such monuments is a valid one, and must remain so without exception.  The decision is a good one, as once the Pandora’s Box is opened to bend, dispense with or even obviate this law, then – under English Law there is no respite from future land grabbers and developers to lay waste to what remains of Pakistan’s antiquities and heritage sites.  Like Shoaib Hashmi one can foresee High rise developments two feet away from the Badshahi mosque or a wedding hall in 17^th century Shalimar Gardens (declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1981), after all if the piece of string is stretched far enough, wedding halls too are for ‘public good’.

This unbridled license to go forth and build, throwing all caution to the wind, will undisputedly destroy the glorious city of Lahore and this country.

Let me illustrate my point with two examples.  To try and address the country’s energy crisis the government embarked on a substantial power station building program. Amongst these projects is the Sahiwal Coal power project at Yousufwala on the Sahiwal Okara border. Sahiwal and Okara are the two most important districts for dairy and milk in the country, and home to the world famous Sahiwal cow and the Neeli Buffalo.  Coal power plant emissions are known to be the major source of anthropogenic (caused by humans) pollution particularly mercury and arsenic poisoning. Moreover Sahiwal is nowhere near any known reserves of coal. But the only two agencies in the world who are not aware of this were Pakistan’s Environmental Protection Agency and the Minister of Water and Power, which perhaps could be one explanation why the project was given the all clear by the EPA and its financial feasibility (or otherwise) overlooked by the Ministry of Water and Power. Once the mercury and arsenic reach into the ground water table and the food chain their harmful effects will be impossible to neutralise. Particularly since this plant could have been relocated to environmentally insulated deserts in other parts of the country.

A while ago, in my blog for a daily paper, I used benchmarks to highlight that the Rawalpindi metro bus was absurdly expensive for what it is – a bus system.  Moreover, that a substantial subsidy will have to be borne by the ordinary taxpayers to finance this cost.  The government challenged this and numerous explanations were provided to justify this ridiculous cost. One positive aspect of this analysis was that when the time came to build the Karachi Green Line, the citizens and particularly the Urban Resource Center were acutely aware and took the initiative to rationalise the costs. A number of experts were brought in to ‘value engineer’, review the route alignment and reduce the elevated portion allowing for a more humane and porous development.

Consequently, three years later the cost of the Karachi Green Line is US $6 million/km as opposed to the Rawalpindi Metro Bus, which cost over US $ 21 million/km.  In other words, the Khaadim-e-Alaa unnecessarily spent an extra US $ 310 million of the taxpayers’ money that could have been put to better use such as health education etc. To say that Karachi is less congested or that it is cheaper to build three years later, are fallacious arguments.  The primary reason for this enormous costs saving is that the non-technical DCO Rawalpindi led the Rawalpindi Metrobus project and Mr Hanif Abbasi, while the Karachi one is being led by Arif Hasan and therein lies the point.

Unfortunately the Punjab government is hell bent on building infrastructure without adequate analysis and due diligence of the available cost-effective alternatives and how to best utilize the funds, employ qualified, experienced and competent personnel while keeping the social, historical and environmental aspects in perspective. Moreover, if anybody attempts to reason with them, they are accused of being ‘anti-development’ and are asked to seek legal remedies.  Well, that is exactly what Mr Kamil Khan Mumtaz and activists of the Lahore Bachao Tehreek did and won.

Saving Lahore’s magnificent heritage is not just for the benefit of our younger generation, its inclusion on the World Heritage list means it is viewed by the august world body as an incomparable piece of history, of Outstanding Universal Value, and we shoulder the responsibility for maintaining its integrity and authenticity for all times to come

So now it is up to the Honorable Supreme Court to decide. Our Lords in the Supreme Court must ponder on how they wish history to judge them and their legacy; the Doctrine of Necessity has hopefully been buried, so they must carefully examine the doctrine of destroying ancient and historic cities of universal significance in the name of illusionary development and spent monies.  That sunk costs and vast amounts of money have already been spent, is a lame excuse for throwing good money after bad.

The moral hazard of dealing with the cultural cost of this project notwithstanding, history takes a dim view of judgements that seek to legitimise illegal acts.  Mr Ijaz Batalvi may have been an intellectual and an incisive legal mind but now all that history judges him on, is his pernicious role as special prosecutor in the State vs Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto case PLD 1977 and PLD 1979.

As Cicero wrote salus populi suprema lex esto – the welfare of the people is the highest law.