The Supreme Court’s much-awaited verdict in the Lahore Orange Line Project has been released. The verdict carries 31 commandments - 19 more than Moses! - allowing the Punjab government to go ahead with the controversial project, which is deemed harmful to the heritage sites by archaeologists and Unesco experts. As the verdict was announced on Friday, there were scenes of jubilation in the beleaguered government quarters while heritage lovers were left aghast. In the civil society quarters, it was being predicted much before the verdict that the court may give a green-light the government on the project, on the pretext that billions have already been spent on the project, so scraping it would mean wasting the investment. First, the Lahore High Court delayed issuing a stay order against the construction work despite petitioners –civil society activists – pleas again and again in 2015. At last a stay order was issued on August 19, 2016 and by then the damage was already done with ugly pillars stare down the heritage sites. The Punjab government moved the Supreme Court against the stay order and the honourable judges sat on the case till Dec 8, 2017.
Heritage lovers and civil society activists have been left with very few options to save the site or minimize the harm stemming from the verdict.
The construction experts can see at what speed the train should run while passing by the sites so the vibration impact is minimum. These sites are Shalamar Gardens, Gulabi Bagh Gateway, Buddu’s Tomb, Chauburji, Zaibunnisa’s Tomb, Lakshmi Building, General Post Office (GPO), Aiwan-i-Auqaf (Shah Chiragh) Building, Supreme Court, Lahore registry building, Saint Andrew’s Church and Mauj Darya Shrine.
The verdict binds government departments - the National Engineering Services Pakistan, the Punjab Mass Transit Authority and the Lahore Development Authority - to come up with the measures to protect monuments during project execution. Alas, none of the department has expertise in preservation an conservation of monuments. In fact, the whole case built against these departments’ anti-heritage project. Civil society can keep the flame alive by approaching these departments time to time to hire the right experts for the job.
One of the commandment states that vibration levels be monitored through modern devices during the construction and initial 10 weeks of the train’s commercial operations. In case, the vibration is damaging the sites, train operations have to be suspended until remedial measures were taken. Sirs, what remedial measures, by the way, you are suggesting when the project will be been functional? It is not the ugly vibration alone, which is defacing the beautiful sites, the blockade of the view of the sites by the high rise has already made the sites ugly scenes.
Another order that “where excavation was necessary, it would be carried out in a way that it would not affect any structure or foundation of the antiquities or special premises” is also like ‘crying over the split milk’.
Other orders include the establishment of a dedicated hotline so that the members of the public can report any blowback to the sites and all complaints will be investigated in seven days.
The verdict also speaks about the need to protect, preserve, renovate, reconstruct and repair the heritage assets.
The 31-point verdict hardly meets these words.
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