Third Planet: Sheranwala Gate

In the walled city of Lahore, Sheranwala is one of the twelve gates. It is also known as ‘Khiziri gate’, and in olden times the River Ravi followed by the city walls and the ferry was near this part. The gate was, therefore, named as Khiziri after the name of Khizzr Elias, the patron saint according to the Mohammedan belief, of running waters and streams, and the discoverer of the water of immortality.

Ranjit Singh kept here two domesticated lions in a cage, and the gate came to be called as ‘Sheranwala gate’ or ‘Lion’s gate’. It is an old crowded area with all the needful facilities including markets and schools. There are two major schools, Government Islamia High School Sheranwala Gate for boys, which is the oldest school and the best training centre for the youth of the vicinity. Then there is the Government School for the Deaf and Dumb Khizri Mohala, which is a mannequin school and also and a banquet hall. There is a Madrassa (an institution for religious studies) established by Moulana Ahmed Ali Lahori, and the Anjuman Khudamu-ud-Din (a great name in the Islamic religious revolution in the sub-continent). There are also many higher secondary private schools in the area to educate the coming generation of this historical soil.

This is the same hinterland where people used to live in joint families sharing their happiness and sorrows. The whole mohala was like a family, and everyone was close to each other and respected each other. However everything has changed now, there is no mohala, people have migrated to other places. Now, you go there and you’ll find a big market of Press Calendars (a heavy machine to iron unstitched cloth). I am not saying that people don’t live there; they do, but the way they are living is worse than anything. Poverty is a big ugly vampire sucking the blood of dwellers.

The rich are getting richer and poor poorer. People don’t want to talk about culture, the poor man wants shelter and the rich man wants to invest his money, buy land and make sky high plazas with two or three basements (where parking is virtually impossible) and consequently destroy heritage. They don’t care about the heritage and architecture; they want money to eat food or on the other hand to make a huge plaza, which is an open invitation to the investors, to come there, earn money and destroy the heritage. The biggest example of their negligence is when a rich resident planned to build a plaza on the ‘Bangla Ayub Shah’ site where a monument was found when workers were digging to make a basement for the intended building. The owner had to pay a fine for violating building laws, which require permission before digging a basement inside the Walled City. The Archaeology Department has disallowed digging or construction in the area without permission and owners of residential plots need the department’s permission to commercialize their land.

Concerned residents protested against building plazas in the Walled City, ‘at the cost of the national heritage’ and said that most commercial site owners did not get a No Objection Certificate from the Archaeology Department.

The discovery triggered a debate over the monument’s importance. An Archaeology Department report said that the mehrabs, paka kali plaster and paintings hanging ten feet above the floor suggested the building was from the Mughal or Sikh era. Now, you decide whose fault it is that we have lost another architectural heritage just because of our greed and negligence.

The Ravi Town Municipal Administration (TMA) has earmarked 506 buildings and 1056 basements as dangerous premises, and the lives of the people residing or working in these buildings are perpetually in danger. 485 out of the marked 506 buildings and all the dangerous basements are located in the Walled City, which could cause a tragic mishap during the coming rainy season.

The TMA has carried out a survey of dangerous buildings on the directive of the Town Municipal Officer Usman Anwar. It has got registered cases against 22 persons for constructing illegal basements, while legal notices have been issued to all the owners for vacating dangerous buildings and having new ones constructed. Sadly, in the Walled City money speaks louder then any legal notice. The survey team has pointed out 75 dangerous basements constructed inside Sheranwala Gate, Azam Cloth Market, Dabbi Bazar, Moti Bazar, Chetram Road, Bhaati Gate, Kot Khawaja Saeed, Koocha Shah Wali, Bazar Sadakaran Rang Mahal, Nawaz Sharif College Road, Masti Gate, Circular Road, Kanari Bazar, Chowk Saurgan Singh, Barood Khana Road, Kashmiri Ghaati, Akbari Mandi, Soha Bazar Rang Mahal, Shah Alam, Kashmiri Gate, Choona Mandi Chowk and Darbar Baba Sher Bukhsh.

I have no words to explain my grief regarding the current situation of my historical neighborhood; this place seems like a haunted citadel, preoccupied by human phantoms. It is my humble request to all of you to preserve this heritage as well as the humanity that remains in our souls!

Published By: Sunday Magazine EyeCandy Daily The Post, (A Khabrian group Of Publications)

Written by: Zohaib Saleem Butt

Date: 14-01-2007