Bangla Ayub Sahib conservation on the cards

LAHORE

After a struggle of many years, Walled City of Lahore Authority (WCLA) has finally got official possession of Bangla Ayub Sahib, one of the ignored havelies in Lahore, from City District Government Lahore (CDGL). 

Situated inside Kashmiri Gate, Bangla Ayub Sahib is one of the high value architectural buildings WCLA wanted to conserve on top priority basis. Presently the only structure one could witness at the site is a roman style veranda of the building while rest of the structure had paved in with the passage of time.

A senior WCLA official said an interesting fact about Kashmiri Gate is that it is located on the highest point inside the Walled City. He said the old city was constructed over a mound and archival pictures and paintings showed Kashmiri Gate as the highest point of the city.

An ignored marvel of the old times, near Kashmiri Ghatti, is Bungalow of Ayub Shah. It was built in Sikh period. In 1849, and was taken over by an Afghan chieftain Ayub Shah who came from Afghanistan. He rebuilt the building and later sold it to the Afghan Royal’s Chief Shazada Sultan. In 1960 the family sold most part of the property and only one third of this famous Bungalow is left now. Bungalow of Ayub Shah was important as the “secret escape tunnels” emerged from there and headed towards River Ravi and Delhi Darwaza.

Bungalow of Ayub Shah is not much popular among the citizens and neither is it a tourist spot but still its pictures have created a buzz over social media as WCLA had posted some of its pictures on its face book page over which hundreds of people commented and asked about the history and other information.

Officials said originally the Bungalow was a three-storey building having two basements and a ground floor. They said the major portion of the building has fallen apart and the major reason of its deteriorating condition was negligence of authorities and aging.

The building was built with small sized bricks while the roofs were made of wooden composed of beam and batten system. The exterior and interior was finished with lime plaster. On both the sides of the building one can see high rise plazas.

WCLA Director General Kamran Lashari said that this was a long awaited move. “At first the need of the hour is to conserve and preserve the Bangla. Then we will move on to its re-use plan. At present it needs to be protected from further deterioration,” he maintained. 

Tanya Qureshi, WCLA’s spokeswoman, said the building, if restored, is a masterpiece of architecture. It can be easily turned into a café, a museum or a gallery as it has a good access from the main road and also the parking facility. “All around the world such places are converted into tourist spots,” she said, adding City District Government Lahore has handed over the possession of Bangla Ayub Sahib to WCLA recently. She revealed that conservation of this high value architectural building will be started soon.

It is pertinent to mention here that many of the high value architectural building buildings and especially the Havelis have been turned into plazas without any check. The ugly cemented blocks are eating our heritage and WCLA have to take stern and immediate action to stop this rapid spree of commercialisation and illegal construction inside the Walled City of Lahore to safe its heritage and culture.