Monuments and buildings reflect the aesthetic taste, maturity and creative capacity of a society. Every age has its own character, values, norms and a sense of utility. By observing historical buildings, one can easily find out the past that is hidden away in their construction. Sometimes new buildings pay homage to and incorporate history and tradition, while sometimes they deviate from the past and express the innovation of the present times.

There are various types of buildings. Firstly, those which represent political domination of the ruling classes, such as forts, palaces, mausoleums and gardens. Secondly, there are religious monuments such as temples, mosques, churches and shrines. Thirdly, there are the houses of ordinary people which usually cannot be preserved for a long time as only those buildings and monuments survive which were built with better materials and on sounder foundations, or which bore political or religious significance. That is why such monuments are preserved, conserved and restored to their original condition as a reminder of a nation’s heritage.

After Partition, Pakistan inherited two types of cities; those which belonged to the medieval period and those that were built by the colonial government during its rule. One can observe the differences between these two types of cities; the old cities are surrounded by walls with a number of gates, while the streets are congested and narrow and the houses closely constructed to each other. On the other hand, the colonial cities are built on the basis of modern town planning with wide and open thoroughfares along with footpaths and trees on either side. In the centre of the city, there is a clock tower around which there are markets and shops. After Independence, the structure of the town started to change, which gradually led to their distortion.

Urban planners modify an urban scene already shaped by complicated historical process, so why are our cities the way they are?

Take the example of Lahore, which is the only city that we have inherited with buildings and monuments of the Mughal period as well as having colonial public buildings representing their individual character. Yet we have failed to maintain its original structure and distorted it by constructing buildings which have no relation with the past. One such example is of the Minar-i-Pakistan which is built as a carbon copy of Eiffel Tower. Surrounded by the Badshahi Mosque and the Lahore Fort, the Minar-i-Pakistan appears disappointingly shabby and grotesque in the shadow of these historical monuments. There was a time when Lahore was known as the city of gardens but slowly and gradually most of the gardens have disappeared and only their names remind us of their existence at one time.

The city of Lahore has further deteriorated because of increase in population and ensuing transport problems. In the absence of proper public transport, people are forced to have their own cars, bikes, scooters and bicycles. Auto rickshaws are noisy and cause pollution. Consequently, the flow of traffic has increased. To facilitate it, the authorities of the city have widened the roads by demolishing the footpaths and cutting trees. Instead of constructing an underground metro system, they have built flyovers and underpasses in the city, which have completely failed to solve transport issues. The flyovers, on the other hand, have distorted the beauty of the city which has been further disfigured by builders who have built plazas without any planning in order to make profit. In the new settlements, there are roads without footpaths. Hence, it appears that these localities have no pedestrians who need to walk. It seems that they are reserved only for those who have their own private transport.

It is not just the case of Lahore, but every city of Pakistan has been distorted by the construction of high-rise buildings which reflect our immaturity, intellectual bankruptcy and lack of aesthetic sense.

Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan is a new and modern city. There are buildings here of political significance such as the Parliament House, the Supreme Court, the president and prime minister’s houses and the secretariat. One expects these new buildings to reflect the ambitions of a new nation but unfortunately neither do they bear the traditional beauty of the Mughal era nor the designs of the colonial period. There is neither any creativity in their architecture nor any sense of beauty in their design.

Recent construction and architecture is not only the destruction of our populated cities but the devastation of our society and its culture. If this continues, we will completely lose our historical consciousness and national identity.

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, August 23rd, 2015

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