Daily Times

Lahore Sangat installed plaques at the residences and workplaces of distinguished poets and celebrated singers on Sunday inside the Walled City of Lahore to pay tribute to our legends.

As per the details, the first plaque was installed inside Bhati Gate at the building where famous poet and writer of our national anthem Hafeez Jullundhri used to work as the Editor of Makhzan Magazine. The name, time-period and the profession of every notable was written on a blue plaque to pay tribute to the iconic personalities. Another plaque was also installed at the same building to pay homage to Mian Zahoor ud Din and Mian Ghulam Rasool who were the publishers and managers of Makhzan Magazine and now their great grandsons live there. The installation ceremony was graced by minister for health Dr Yasmin Rashid, Commissioner Lahore division Saif Anjum, Deputy Commissioner Danish Afzal, former Principal National College of Arts Prof Fauzia Husain Qureshi and Lahore’s cultural Guru Mian Yousaf Salli.

Lahore Sangat is an informal association of Lahoris that works to remember and pay tribute to the extraordinary women and men not always sufficiently acknowledged, by mapping where they lived and worked by installing distinctive blue enamel plaques in their memory

Speaking on the occasion, health minister Dr Yasmin Rashid, who also hails from Lahore, said that Lahore is credited to produce brilliant minds and many notables of different fields including Nobel laureate Dr Abdul Salam also used to live here. She was of the view that Lahore was once known as the city of colleges and universities with a rich culture and heritage. “The Lahore Sangat is all praise for this initiative that is meant to preserve the memories of notables who spent important time of their lives in these building and it will send a message of recognizing these personalities,” said Dr Yasmin.

Lahore Sangat is an informal association of Lahoris that works to remember and pay tribute to the extraordinary women and men not always sufficiently acknowledged, by mapping where they lived and worked by installing distinctive blue enamel plaques in their memory. The Lahore Sangat has already installed plaques in the memory of legends including Nobel laureate Prof Abdul Salam, A.S.Patras Bukhari, Saadat Hasan Manto, Sir Ganga Ram, Rustam Gama Pehalwan, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Amrita Pritam and Maulana Zafar Ali Khan at the places where these personalities used to live in Lahore.

“We’ll install 120 plaques in next three months at the places where these exceptional individuals used to live in Lahore ranging from the Model Town to Walled City,” said Prof Fauzia Husain Qureshi, the face behind Lahore Sangat. Qureshi, an architect, who retired as Principal National College of Arts, told Daily Times that the objective of the plaques is not only to honor the personalities but also to generate awareness and instill a sense of pride amongst the people who live in the vicinity of the significance of their locality and neighbourhood. “The people living here will take pride and they will also keep the vicinity clean to pay homage to the legends,” said Qureshi, who has a vast experience in preserving the cultural heritage and she is also president of ICOMOS Pakistan. The plaques will be installed in honour of exceptional individuals who were painters, writers, poets, actors, scholars, singers, dancers, composers, saints, mystics, journalists and publishers.

On Sunday, plaques were also installed at the buildings where Allama Iqbal, Ustad Daman, Nur Jahan and Muhammad Rafi used to live in Lahore. A plaque was installed at the building where our national poet Allama Iqbal lived from 1901 to 1905 inside Bhati Gate. Another plaque was installed at the building where famous Punjabi poet Ustad Daman lived from 1950 to 1984 at Heera Mandi Taxali Gate. The plaque of Nur Jahan was installed at Taxali Gate where the queen of melody lived from 1938 to 1942. The last plaque was installed at the building where famous singer Muhammad Rafi lived from 1935 to 1944 at Noor Mohalla Taxali Gate.