LAHORE: Punjab government has criticised the July 19 press conference of the Lahore Conservation Society (LCS). It said the press release of the LCS is factually incorrect and misleading.
The LCS press conference stated that the government misled the media about UNESCO decisions on Shalimar Gardens and the Orange Line Metro Project.
The Punjab government in its Thursday press release said the LCS has been perpetually feeding wrong information to the World Heritage Centre (Centre) which unfortunately became the basis for the centre to put up Draft Decisions, for consideration of the World Heritage Committee (WHC).
Pakistan participated in the 41st Session of the World Heritage Committee (WHC) held at Krakow, Poland. LCS’ Imrana Tiwana also presented their point of view in the session. The State Party presented its point of view based on facts stemming from technical data and conclusions and recommendations of various studies conducted to-date for this project.
All unjustified draft decisions put up by the Centre regarding the suspension of work on the project, effecting a change in alignment in front of Shalamar Gardens and for placing the Gardens on the list of World Heritage in Danger were rejected by the Committee.
The Centre had indicated in the Draft Decisions that further construction work to the East and West of Shalamar Gardens is having an ascertained impact on the setting and integrity of the property. The Committee rejected this assertion along with the concern that no exhaustive impact assessments had been undertaken for the project to determine impacts on Outstanding Universal Value of Shalamar Gardens, notably its integrity and authenticity.
The Committee also rejected inclusion of Shalamar Gardens and Fort in the danger list.
The Centre had put up in the Draft Decisions to suspend further works in the immediate vicinity of Shalamar Gardens, identify an alternate location for the Orange Line Metro Train project, and to invite the Reactive Monitoring Mission to inter alia discuss alignment change of the project. These proposals were categorically rejected by the World Heritage Committee.
The Centre had put up incorrect concern in the Draft Decisions that an NOC was issued by the Archaeology Department. The World Heritage Committee rejected this concern as well.
Instead, it requested the State Party to urgently complete and share with the World Heritage Centre the Visual Impact Study as decided by WHC in its 40th Session.
The Reactive Monitoring Mission was restricted to reviewing the management and protection arrangements only. Their proposed role to discuss alignment change was specifically.
The Committee noted that the Reactive Monitoring Mission will be invited immediately after the decision of the Supreme Court.
The Committee was also informed on behalf of the Pakistan State Party that the decision of the Supreme Court may be released in the next 15 days for the reason that the same was reserved on April 17.
The World Heritage Centre only acts as the secretariat of the World Heritage Committee and the real authority vests in the Committee which takes decisions on matters presented before it.
