The Walled City of Lahore has been designated a World Heritage Site to be protected by the government. The Walled City of Lahore Authority has been set up to manage the Walled City, and to make sure it is managed properly. Recent incidents indicate that this may not be happening, as attempts continue to use the ambience of the Old City. Perhaps the most hurtful part of the whole exercise is that in two cases, the activity engaged in was the one for which permission had been granted. That indicates that the permission should not have been granted in the first place. The incident in which there was something else done instead of the event for which permission had been sought indicates that the WCLA seems to regard its job as done once it has pocketed the fee, and does not see its job as ensuring that no illegal activity is carried out.
There was the shooting of a teleplay in Masjid Wazir Khan, which ended with a case registered against the cast members for acting there, and the playing of music. The very fact that a case could be registered indicates that permission was granted too casually, without obtaining sufficient details of what was to go on. Similarly, the recent permission for a vehicle to race around while shooting for a commercial shows the authorities failing to carry out due diligence. But the most egregious example must be the wedding held against the permission for a corporate event. The absence of a mechanism to ensure that events are held according to the permission given, and do not exceed them, was shown up.
The pity is that this government of philistines does not understand that the Walled City has received the designation not just because it provides Lahorites with a link to the past, but because its forms part of the heritage of all humanity, and should not be frittered away like this. Not only must an enquiry be conducted into why these lapses occurred, but arrangements must be made to stop such episodes from continuing.
