Daily Times

LAHORE: The completion of the Orange Line Metro Train (OLMT) project is still a challenge for the Punjab government, which is committed to completing the project despite all odds.

The project has the potential to provide rapid transportation facility to 0.25m inhabitants in Lahore after its completion. But the controversies associated with the project, especially its impact on the world heritage sites, including Shalimar Gardens, have become a headache for the government.

Conservation of heritage sites is not the only hindrance, as the project has seen many obstacles such as land acquisition, payments against land acquisition, political parties’ criticism, deaths of OMT workers and much more. A number of protests have been recorded against the project.

Recently, a legal fight between the government and civil society created hype in the media when the Punjab government claimed that the World Heritage Committee had scrapped the proposal to declare Shalimar Gardens endangered in its 41st session in Poland. To support the claim, the government had said that the decision was taken as a result of effective presentation of technical data and relevant reports by state party, Pakistan, to the committee members.

However, ten days after the of issuance of the statement, an alliance of civil society organisations, including the Pakistan Civil Society Forum (PCSF), Lahore Conservation Society (LCS) and others, held a press conference, saying that the WHC did not issued such a decision.

According to the letter written to LCS and PCSF by World Heritage Centre Director Mechtild Rössler, “Please allow me to clarify the following points: the 41st session of the World Heritage Committee has decided to grant one more year to the state party of Pakistan in complying with the request made by the 40th session of the World Heritage Committee prior to making any decision to inscribe the Lahore Fort and Shalimar Gardens on the list of World Heritage in Danger.

“Therefore, it goes without saying that no work should be carried out within the section of the Shalimar Gardens until the Reactive Monitoring Mission has been carried out and until the visual impact study has been submitted and reviewed by the advisory bodies.

In this regard, the World Heritage Committee particularly stipulated that highest priority must be given to sustain the spirituality associated with Shalimar Gardens, and its setting. To this end, the Committee requested the State Party to immediately undertake studies related to the setting of the Gardens, which should be taken into account when proposing an enlargement of the property’s buffer zone.”

A copy of the letter was also sent to Permanent Delegation of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan to UNESCO, Pakistan National Commission of Pakistan to UNESCO, UNESCO Islamabad Office, ICOMOS International and Pakistan Civil Society Forum member organisations.

Published in Daily Times, July 31^st 2017.