- The owners started bulldozing the national heritage without the permission of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial government.
The Directorate of Museum and Archaeology in Pakistan’s Peshawar city has registered a case against the owners of Raj Kapoor’s house after they started bulldozing the hundred-years-old national heritage without the permission of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial government. The historical Kapoor Hawelli is situated in Dakki Munawar Shah which is surrounded by huge building and narrow streets, the house was well-decorated piece of stone architecture of its time.
Like other houses in the city, this house was also badly affected by the recent earthquake and major cracks have developed in almost every portion. The town administration had directed the owners of all ramshackle houses to demolish their buildings which were affected by October 26 earthquake aimed to avoid any mishap, however when the owners started bulldozing the upper portion of the house police raided them and registered the First Information Report (FIR) against Israr, Ali Hassan and Hassan Qadir who are the owners of the house.
The owners said that neither the court nor the government issued notification for declaring it a national heritage. They said that this was their house, which was purchased by their parents.
On the other hand director museum and archaeology registered FIR against the owners of the house while following the directives of Secretary Azam Khan.
It is pertinent to mention here that Raj Kapoor who is grandfather of Kareena Kapoor was born in Dhakki Munawwar Shah near Qissa Khwani in Peshawar, into a Hindu family, Prithviraj Kapoor and Ramsarni Devi Kapoor.
Later Raj Kapoor moved to Punjab along with his family for getting high school education. At the age of ten, he appeared in films for the first time, in 1935’s Inqilab. His brothers Shashi Kapoor and the late Shammi Kapoor are also actors. Not only Raj Kapoor house, the historical Qissa Khwani city is home to several century old buildings, as it was one of the commercial and business hub from the very early time.
Building of Afghanistan trade centre or trade bureau owned by former Afghan government before marking the Durand line is also in its old position while house of Daleep Kumar has also been recently declared as national heritage. – MD
