PHA Chief Tours Lahore Parks; Deadlines Ordered, None Announced

LAHORE: The head of Lahore’s horticulture agency has told his officers to finish beautification work on time. Officials did not say what that time is.

Managing Director Ahmad Usman Javed visited several parts of the city on September 30. He looked at construction, beautification and planting work at Nadira Begum’s Tomb, Kamahan Chowk, an underpass and parks in Nishtar Town. Officers briefed him on the state of the parks and the facilities offered to visitors.

Mr Javed told them to complete the work “within the stipulated timelines” and to pay attention to cleanliness, green areas and facilities in the parks. He said a green and clean city was a top priority under the chief minister’s vision, and that all available resources were being used.

One of the sites has a history that the statement does not mention. Nadira Begum was the wife of the Mughal prince Dara Shikoh. Her tomb, near the shrine of Mian Mir, dates from the seventeenth century and once stood in the middle of a large water tank. Any work around it deserves care, and the public should be told what is being done.

The statement names no project, no budget and no completion date. It does not say which underpass was visited or which parks in Nishtar Town are being improved.

The agency has been busy. It has put the cost of restoring Kamran’s Baradari at Rs400 million and is planting bamboo along Atta Bakhsh Road. Those announcements came with figures and dates. This one should have too. A deadline that the public cannot see is hard to hold anyone to.