PESHAWAR: The cultural activists have supported the announcement made recently by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government that the birthplace of the cinema legend from Peshawar Dilip Kumar (Muhammad Yousaf Khan) would be conserved soon and turned into a museum.
Expressing satisfaction at the announcement, the writers and cultural activists, including Dr Salahuddin, Mohammad Ibrahim Zia, Ali Awais and others said Peshawar had produced legends who excelled in respective fields. They said Peshawarites were proud of this Dilip Kumar as he is the greatest thespian Peshawar has ever produced. They hoped the KP government led by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf would go beyond announcements and take practical steps to conserve the birthplace of Dilip Kumar without wasting any time.
It may be mentioned here that the Parliamentary Secretary for Culture Arif Yousaf who is also Member Provincial Assembly from PK-4 recently visited the house of Dilip Kumar situated in Mohallah Khudadad at the back of the historical Qissa Khwani Bazaar. He held out the assurance to conserve the building for the posterity.
The visit was arranged by Cultural Heritage Council (CHC), an umbrella organisation that has always called for conserving the family homes of Bollywood legends in Peshawar. CHC President Younas Qiyasi, General Secretary Shakeel Wahidullah, Peshawar Press Club President Nasir Hussain, Gandhara Hindko Board representative Sikandar Hayat, a historian Mohammad Ibrahim Zia and other culture lovers were also present on the occasion.
CHC General Secretary Shakeel Wahidullah informed the Parliamentary Secretary for Culture Arif Yousaf that several historic buildings in Peshawar and Khyber Pukhtunkhwa which included the houses of Dilip Kumar and Raj Kapoor in Peshawar had fallen victim to the decay and neglect over the years. He said a number of cinema legends belonged to Peshawar and hence their ancestral homes deserved to be declared national heritage sites He deplored that numerous promises were made by the previous Awami National Party government to preserve the houses but these buildings were never purchased and conserved.
Dr Ali Jan, a culture activist, said that the issue of conserving Dilip Kumar and Raj Kapoor houses had been raised many a times in the past. “The politicians in previous governments made tall claims just to grab the media attention. But on the ground no tangible effort was made beyond giving a lip service to the issue,” he deplored, adding he hoped the present elected government led by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf would sincerely undertake preservation of all historical structures in the province and bring them under the ambit of the Antiquities Act 1997.
Arif Yousaf said he had undertaken the visit to see for himself the state of the family home of Dilip Kumar. He expressed concern over the poor condition of the house and wondered why such historical house was not preserved for the new generation of Pakistan in general and people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Peshawar in particular. He said the family homes of Dilip Kumar and Raj Kapoor deserved to be conserved.
Talking of the conservation of the Dilip Kumar birth place, Arif Yousaf said though the house has faced neglect, yet he felt reassured as from the engineering point of view the structure of the small building is still intact. He said the house could be restored with minor conservation work it and turned into a living museum dedicated to all the cinema starts who hailed from Peshawar.
The parliamentary secretary sought technical proposals from CHC to suggest ways and means for conserving the building. He also asked the CHC to identify the ways to the government on how to grant the building a Protected National Monument status under the relevant laws. He assured he would take up the issue with the chief minister and both the ministers for culture and archaeology.
