A statue of the Poet of the East, after having facing heavy backlash on social media, is being removed from Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park and will be returned after improvements have been made to it, the Lahore Parks and Horticulture Authority (PHA) announced on Tuesday.
Moreover, an order issued by the authority revealed that Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park Deputy Director Horticulture Shah Nawaz Wattoo and Assistant Director (AD) Horticulture Ghulam Sibtain have been suspended with “immediate effect”.
Shortly after his suspension, the AD spoke to a local news outlet, wherein he shared that the construction of the statue had begun during the first wave of the pandemic. However, he added, there was no architect involved, so the sculpture had been made by two gardeners.
This project had been undertaken after the PHA director issued orders for the construction of a “selfie point”.
Sibtain said he did not spend any state money to make the selfie point. “I requested some elderly people who come to the park daily to help us with funds in the making of this statue. We bought cement with the collected funds, and used iron rods and wood dumped in the park.”
He further explained that the statue had not yet been completed. “We have only completed the left side of the statue but the right side remains incomplete. The statue is not yet accurate”.
A spokesperson for the PHA earlier today said that the statue would be improved and returned to the park.
A picture was shared on Twitter by a person, showing a group of workers uprooting the boundary fence surrounding the sculpture. “After going viral on social media, Iqbal’s structure is being uprooted,” he wrote.
Moreover, the PHA Chairman Yasir Gillani had said that the statue had been built by the parks’ workers due to their love for the poet.
“Dear, this is prepared by maalis at their own, they made it in sheer love for Iqbal and to pay homage from their heart. Authority didn’t approve or even paid a single penny for it,” he wrote on Twitter.
Yasir said that since the structure was built by the gardeners out of their own pocket money, no action will be taken against them. However, he said that clear directives had been issued to ensure that no sculpture is built inside the park without the park management’s permission.
Social media was alit, as netizens took to offering their comments on the statue. Some people called the carving an ‘evidence of nepotism’ while others asked the deputy commissioner to remove the sculpture as it was a “disgrace” to see.
A social media user posted a picture of the oversized bust with a caption criticising its artistic accuracy. “There’s nothing wrong in this but it doesn’t look like Allama Iqbal,” she pointed out.
Some appraised the courage of those who approved it, while others commented that they are glad Iqbal is not alive to see the moment.
The post went viral in a span of a few hours, with Twitterati barraging the provincial authorities with the demand to replace it as soon as possible.
However, it turns out that the sculpture was made in good faith by well-meaning people.
Taking notice of the outcry, Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar ordered immediate removal of the statue.
