Walled City Lahore Authority (WCLA) Director General Kamran Lashari has said that he wishes to resurrect the old Lahore city in all its true grandeur to leave it as a prized piece of civilization for posterity.In an interview with APP here on Sunday, the renowned civil servant said about 2000 properties had been renovated and restored to their original form while 55 streets had been re-laid from Delhi Gate to Kotwali Chowk within the Walled city by the WCLA and these present a magical form of the centuries old Lahore.
Lashari counts rehabilitation the ‘Shahi Hamam’ (Royal Bath) as one of the epitome of achievements and the fact had been acknowledged by the modern historian and writer William Dalrymple who termed it the best architectural restoration work in the South Asia.
He believes the Shahi Hamam has been an oasis in the desert for the tourists and students of archaeology.
The WCLA DG said that he was committed to bring people closer by opening enchanted casements of the Walled City to the tourists, adding that connecting people was a science and the WCLA must serve a tool to the cause.
The conversation also shed light on the events which shaped his aesthetics and made him the man he is. As a man tied to his roots, Lashari takes pride in being a descendant of Baloch clan with a tablet engraved with his family tree stands on a side-table in his somewhat cramped but artistically embellished office.
It might have been a moment for umpteenth satisfaction for him to undertake renovation and restoration of the tomb of Mir Chakar Khan Rind Baloch as the DG WCLA.
To a query, Kamran Lashari termed the patronage of Agha Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC) as vital in the restoration work, adding that restoration of Wazir Khan Mosque and other areas had been result of this collaboration. The AKTC funded Picture Wall of the Lahore Fort was the largest mosaic wall of the world to be restored, he added.
About his stint as DG PHA, he said this was a period of self discovery and he worked with his heart and soul to make the idea of PHA a success. “I worked so hard in those days that I started to have tremors’, he shared, adding that PHA helped the city regain its identity”, he said.
Talking about the making of PHA, he said PHA was a new authority and it faced quite an opposition from the bureaucracy as they deemed it a white elephant, adding that the then Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif was resolute and wanted to restore green face of Lahore.
About Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Lashari said ‘Whenever I came across Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, though I have not met him recently, he would remind me of the stern opposition in the face of PHA’.
He agreed to the fact that the creation of PHA was ahead of times project, adding that it was like the then Chief Minister Punjab Shehbaz Sharif was cognizant of the climate challenges about quarter of a century ago.
