INSTITUTIONS

INSTITUTIONS AND HERITAGE

Under the Walled City of Lahore Act 2012, the Walled City of Lahore Authority (WCLA) was created by the Punjab Government. It is the appointed autonomous body for the regulation and management of the functions of the entire Walled City of Lahore. The Act defines heritage not merely as individual buildings but an integral whole comprising its ‘architectural, archaeological, monumental, historic, artistic, aesthetic, cultural or social [legacy], elements [and] features of a building and building fabric, groups of buildings and structures, urban fabric, urban open spaces, public areas, public crossings or public passages, as well as the environment of the Walled City, including intangible heritage’ (AKCSP 2018).

The city undeniably offers a vast potential for tapping into the heritage tourism industry. The Director-General of the Walled City of Lahore Authority (WCLA), a retired army official, Kamran Lashari, shows keen interest in this aspect. The institution has been focusing primarily on preserving acclaimed heritage sites and takes great pride in UNESCO validated and award-winning projects. Furthermore, WCLA skims over the restoration of residential buildings, preservation of facades, and improving the infrastructure of the urban fabric.

The idea of an entire city as heritage is new to Pakistan. In the cities of developing countries, it is simply not economically possible to retain an entire stock of urban heritage and the national or local budgets rarely stretch to urban conservation (Assi 2008). The motive of the local government to enlist the historic building stock on the protection list becomes a cause for quick and visible actions, like recreating or even inventing history.

In 2006, the Sustainable Walled City Project (SDWCLP) began, funded by the World Bank, with a particular intention of developing cultural tourism. This was followed with plans for restaurants, hotels, tourist transportation, and handicraft boutiques. The project involved the execution of a pilot project, which led to the creation of a heritage trail, ‘to showcase methods and the benefits of the conservation of cultural assets, and their productive use and reuse’ (Roquet, et al. 2017). The rehabilitation included façade and street improvements, conforming to Mughal-era forms, with the provision of new municipal infrastructure and services; designing a carefully-choreographed heterotopia within the Walled City.

“The understanding of heritage and the attempt to protect or conserve it is deeply political. It appears to me that their understanding of the city reduces to a place where non-Walled City residents come to entertain themselves.”

Ahmed Rafay Alam, an environment lawyer, and activist, comments on the prevailing inclinations of the authorities concerned.