LAHORE, Oct 4: Unless we, the people of Lahore, ourselves contribute to conserve and save our own heritage, no one is going to come to do it for us, says Lahore Heritage Foundation (LHF) Chairman Syed Babar Ali.

Presiding over the second meeting of the foundation here on Friday, he said: “I have great faith in Lahorites, they will donate to save our city, their city. This we cannot leave to the government to do.”

The meeting approved to launch a $50 million plan to save the Lahore Fort from utter ruin.

“First we must put our money where our mouth is, then others will have the confidence to support us. We cannot leave it to foreign governments and agencies. We have lived and will die in Lahore, and we owe it to this great city to save it from further ruin,” he said.

The meeting discussed ways of interacting with the Lahore Walled City Authority whose Director General Kamran Lashari also attended the meeting as a special guest. Ways were also discussed on how to better work with Aga Khan Trust for Culture, a world leader in conservation who has just completed Humayun’s tomb in Delhi.

“Our Lahore Fort is among the finest in the world, and we must save it from further ruin. Every child must contribute, no matter how little, and every businessman must open his heart and purse,” he said.

Syed Babar Ali himself made an initial contribution of Rs10 million over three years, the initial amount of which is already in the foundation accounts.

The meeting also set up its office in the Naaqsh School of Arts inside Bhati Gate, next to the Haveli Mubarak Begum. Other business persons also pledged contributions and the fund to begin work on the main project, as well as other smaller projects to save as many historic buildings inside the Walled City was set going.

LHF Secretary Majid Sheikh described the initial steps being taken to help the government save the Punjab Public Library, which has one of the finest collection of books in the world.

“We now just cannot afford to leave conservation work to the government. We must save what is our heritage. Merely talking about the damage is not enough. We must act and act without wanting to take credit for it”, he said.

The foundation has set up a website with the assistance of Wolfson College of the University of Cambridge, in which everything about Lahore will be digitalised. The site has the ability to take one million hits at any given time.

“We plan to make it the finest website on Lahore,” said Majid Sheikh.

A special research fund has also been set up to finance scholars who research the history of Lahore. A discussion on training conservation workers was initiated by Ms Yasmeen Cheema, who has done a considerable work in this field.

The foundation will also be seeking younger scholars to assist in their advocacy programmes.

Among those attending the meeting were Mrs Yawar Ali, Shahid Husain, Nayyar Ali Dada, Shahid Malik, Mrs Naheed Rizvi and Qasim Jaffery.