Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Mahmood Khan has approved Rs 23.56 million to purchase the ancestral houses of two Bollywood legends Dilip Kumar and Raj Kapoor in Peshawar.
As per reports, the value of Raj Kapoor house is Rs 15 million, while Kumar’s home is worth Rs 8.56 million. Both houses will be converted into museums after restoration work.
The owner of the Kapoor Haveli Hajji Ali Qadir had earlier demanded at least two billion rupees for the mansion in Qissa Khawani Bazaar from the government. The province’s archaeology department at the time had said that it will use legal powers to purchase the Kapoor Haveli as well as Dilip Kumar’s house if needed.
The department had earlier declared the two houses as national heritage sites that were recognised internationally.
Earlier, Kumar himself took to social media to express his excitement over the government’s decision. The legendary actor asked his fans living in Peshawar to share photos of his ancestral house on Twitter.
Peshawar Zoo lost its fourth giraffe in 2020 on Monday, just a few days after a black bear’s alleged death.
According to details, the male giraffe had been suffering from an intestinal infection for one week and was under treatment in the zoo. Zoo officials said that samples were collected from the dead body and sent to the National Veterinary Laboratory, Islamabad, and Veterinary Research Institute, Peshawar, for examination and to ascertain the exact cause of the death.
A three-year-old giraffe was earlier found dead in June, while the other two died in April and May.
“The earlier three died of shooting diarrhoea while this one now had a somewhat different cause of death,” stated Project Director of the Peshawar Zoo, Ishtiaq Wazir. “We had provided antibiotics to the giraffe but it did not recover,” added the official.
He further said that giraffes are fragile animals and the symptom of their disease appears at the time when preventive intervention cannot succeed in treating them.
Officials said the zoo was left with two female giraffes only.
Animal rights activists have been campaigning for the condition of animals kept in Peshawar zoo. A petition about issues of the Peshawar zoo, including animal deaths and qualification of staff members, especially veterinarians, is also pending with the Peshawar High Court.
Islamabad zoo shuts down after last animals moved
Meanwhile, Islamabad’s Marghazar Zoo — which drew international condemnation for its treatment of lonely elephant Kaavan — shut down on Wednesday after its final occupants Babloo and Suzie were relocated to Jordan.
Babloo
The two Himalayan bears were the last to leave the Islamabad facility, almost three weeks after the country’s only Asian elephant was flown to a wildlife sanctuary in Cambodia.
“The Islamabad zoo is now completely closed for both public and officials,” said Saleem Shaikh, a spokesman for Pakistan’s ministry of climate change.
Mohammad Naseem’s eyes shine while he shares the legend of a remote, alpine lake nestled among snow-capped Himalayan peaks as a rare crowd of onlookers hears one of Pakistan’s last ‘storytellers’.
The story of Saif-ul-Malook — the winding saga of a brave prince who falls in love with a fairy — is just one of the 50 tall tales passed down to Naseem by his father.
“Usually people tell me I’m crazy when I tell these stories,” says Naseem, whose long white beard and traditional cloak give him the timeless appearance of a storyteller of old.
The 65-year-old shopkeeper says it would take days to recite all the stories he learned by heart that are imbued with “the history, the culture” of the land.
But few are still listening.
Naseem says he hasn’t bothered sharing the stories with his six children, and friends are no longer interested in hearing them as social media, video games, and soap operas have all but eclipsed his ancient art.
Video platform TikTok is now a major source of entertainment for the country’s youth, wildly popular in part because it is accessible to illiterate users in rural areas — just as the legends of old once were.
“When I die, these stories will die with me,” sighs Naseem outside his shop in northern Pakistan’s Shogran, where winter snows have blanketed the mountains.
Storytellers Bazaar
The city of Peshawar has long been the country’s stronghold of oral history, its Qissa Khawani or “storytellers bazaar” a Silk Road hub where travellers and locals alike congregated to hear a well-spun yarn.
The bustling frontier capital was once “the Times Square of the region” because of “the excellence of its storytellers,” explains Naeem Safi — a consultant at an Islamabad-based institute dedicated to Pakistani folk heritage, where cassettes of stories told at the bazaar have been archived.
“Writing was not very popular. The transfer of knowledge was verbal. Storytelling was fundamental — people considered themselves educated if they had heard enough stories,” says Safi.
Before tuk-tuks and buses clogged its narrow lanes the market was littered with Silk Road caravans of wandering traders who often stayed the night after the city’s sixteen gates were sealed at dusk.
In the evenings, the merchants would hear the city’s famed storytellers — who shared tales about the perils of the road, news of wars and local lore.
Bollywood legend Dilip Kumar, who grew up in the area recalled: “I have lovely memories of Qissa Khwani Bazaar, where I received my first lessons in storytelling, which later provided the impetus to choose meaty stories and scripts for my work. Every day as the trading closed in the market of Qissa Khwani Bazaar, a storyteller would sit in the centre of the square narrating stories of valour and victory, deceit and retribution which I would listen to with wide-eyed attention, seated next to my father and uncles.”
Kumar’s house has recently been acquired by the KP Government for restoration. Authorities say that the heritage sites will be converted into museums and tourist spots.
Similar, long-time Peshawar resident Khwaja Safar Ali, 75, remembers his youth in the city when the arrival of caravans was met with excitement.
During the day, “we used to run between the camels’ legs,” he recalls. And when evening came, “we would all sit together and listen to the storytellers”.
“They would tell us about Kabul, the USSR, Uzbekistan. We learned about these countries through them.”
Modern transportation eventually killed off the caravans, which even by the 1960s had become an increasingly rare sight in the area. While storytellers continued to perform for smaller circles, they were gradually replaced by radios and then televisions slowly fading away the art of storytelling.
Five areas in Peshawar are under smart lockdown, according to a notification issued by the Peshawar Deputy Commissioner.
According to a notification, the areas are:
Streets 7-11, Sector E-VI, Phase VII, Hayatabad
Streets 1, 1-A and 2, Sector N-IV, Phase IV, Hayatabad
University Town area, bound by Circular Lane, Park Road and Old Jamrud Road
Hayatabad Industrial Estate, bound by Industrial Estate Road, Wazirdund Canal, National Highway 5, Polyfine Chemfarma Road
Peshawar Cantt area, bound by Gulberg Road, Stadium Road and Qayyum Sports Complex
ضروری اطلاع۔۔۔
ضلعی انتظامیہ پشاور نے کورونا کیسز میں تیزی سے اضافہ ہونے کی وجہ سے مختلف علاقوں میں آج چھ بجے سے سمارٹ لاک ڈاؤن نافذ کر دیا۔ڈپٹی کمشنر پشاور محمد علی اصغر@maliasghar @ChiefSecKP @infokpgovt@PMRUKPpic.twitter.com/35YvQ8nq0r
Lockdown in these areas will be executed from 6 pm today and will remain in place until further notice. During the lockdown, all gatherings will be banned and all shops except those of essential services will remain closed. Congregations in mosques will also be restricted to five people only.
Pakistan has reported 400,482 coronavirus cases so far. The virus cases emerged during the last 24 hours are 2,458.
Hajji Ali Qadir, who owns the historical Kapoor Haveli in Qissa Khawani Bazaar Peshawar, has said that he would take the authorities to court if they did not pay him at least two billion rupees for the mansion.
Speaking to AFP, Qadir said he has told the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government that building is “an antique and the price for an antique is multiplied 10 times.”
“We will get more money if we build a plaza here,” he added.
On the other hand, the province’s archaeology department has said it will use legal powers to purchase the Kapoor Haveli as well as Dilip Kumar’s house if needed.
In September, the KP archeological department announced that it had allotted Rs 50 million for the renovation and restoration of 15 historical sites in the province including the Kapoor Haveli and Dilip Kumar’s house located in Peshawar’s historical Qissa Khwani Bazaar.
“This is our cultural heritage and we take pride in preserving it. We are very proud that Dilip Kumar and Raj Kapoor were from Peshawar,” said KP Director of Archaeology and Museums Abdul Samad.
It is pertinent to mention here that while Kumar’s residence was declared a protected heritage by the Directorate of Archaeology and Tourism in 2013 and later a protected monument, under the Antiquity Act 1997, the Kapoor Haveli was reported to have been converted into a museum in 2012. Despite the special status awarded to the buildings, little to no attention was paid to them and the former residences of the Bollywood stars currently stand in dilapidated conditions. Officials have often cited a lack of resources and funds and legalities surrounding buildings’ ownership as the reason behind their dismal condition.
Once an architectural wonder, the family home of Kapoor, who died aged 63 in 1988, is influenced by Mughal empire, Central Asian and British colonial design, featuring ornately carved doors and balconies and gothic-style windows. On the other hand, Kumar lived in a simpler home down a small lane in a busy market.
Rishi Kapoor and Randhir Kapoor outside the Kapoor Haveli in 1990
In 2019, Rishi had requested the Government of Pakistan to preserve his ancestral home and convert it into a museum. He wished to visit the place before he passed away.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Shah Mahmood Qureshi, at that time, had said, “There was a call from Rishi Kapoor. He requested that his family’s home in Peshawar should be made into a museum or some sort of institution. We have accepted his request.”
Peshawar suffered a huge knock-back to its cultural standing after becoming a hotbed of Islamist extremist violence from the 1980s onwards, bringing an end to the golden era of Pashto-language cinema in the region, known as Pollywood.
Militant groups, including the Pakistani Taliban, bombed at least three cinemas and more than 100 music shops before a military crackdown near the border with Afghanistan in 2015 resulted in drastic improvements in security.
As the city revives, more than 1,800 heritage buildings with traditional features have been identified for preservation by the province’s archaeology team, but impoverished Pakistan will need years to arrange the finances required to their purchase and restoration.
“If a proper archaeological survey was conducted, we would discover a cultural site almost every kilometre,” said archaeological director Samad about the province.
A passenger at the Bacha Khan International Airport was arrested for bringing a quail bird with him on a flight on Sunday.
According to details, a passenger entered the plane carrying the bird in his pocket and took it out during the flight, flying from Jeddah to Peshawar and started playing with it.
When an air hostess questioned him about it, he became angry with her, stated officials.
The passenger was arrested by the Airport Security Force (ASF) on arrival at the Peshawar Airport. ASF officials took the quail into their custody. However, the passenger was later released after a written apology.
Police arrested a man in Peshawar who was posing as a policeman with PTI leader Taimoor Hassan Khan in multiple TikTok videos.
As per reports, the man is employed as a private bodyguard with Sahibzada Taimur Hassan. The accused posted many videos on social media, which were pointed out by the Capital City Police social media team.
Fake cards, police uniforms and weapons were recovered from the bodyguard. A case has also been registered against the Sahibzada Taimoor Hassan.
Germany’s new ambassador to Pakistan Bernhard Schleg Hack recently tried Peshawar’s delicious chapli kebabs and loved them.
Sharing his experience on Twitter, the German ambassador posted pictures of himself enjoying a chapli kebab sitting at a dhaba in Peshawar.
“The most interesting experience of my recent visit to Peshawar was to enjoy the chapli kebabs there,” wrote the German envoy with his pictures.
Hack further said the chapli kebabs were delicious.
“I can now fully understand why this dish is so popular,” he wrote.
میرے #پشاور کے حالیہ دورے کا سب سے دلچسپ تجربہ وہاں کے چپلی کباب سے لطف اٹھانے کا تھا۔ نہایت ہی مزیدار! اب میں پوری طرح سے سمجھ سکتا ہوں کہ یہ ڈش اتنی مشہور کیوں ہے. pic.twitter.com/0VLXqZjwM1
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government’s decision to buy and restore the house of Bollywood legend Dilip Kumar located in Peshawar’s historical Qissa Khwani Bazaar – or Street of Storytellers – has won the actor’s heart who took to social media to express his excitement. The legendary actor also requested his fans residing in Peshawar to share photos of his ancestral house on Twitter.
Later, Kumar’s manager Faisal Farooqui penned a thread on Kumar’s “sentiments on his ancestral home” which he had shared in a blog post in 2011.
“I am at once full of fond remembrances of my parents, grandparents and numerous uncles, aunts and cousins who filled the house with the sounds of their chatter and hearty laughter,” Kumar, 97, had written in his blog.
“I have memories of the sitting room where the family gathered for high tea in the evenings, the large room where the ladies prayed, the terrace, the bedrooms, everything. I can vividly recall the piggy rides on my grandfather’s back and the scary stories my grandmother cooked up to forbid me from wandering out of the house alone,” he wrote further.
Dilip Kumar’s home
He continued: “I have lovely memories of Qissa Khwani Bazaar, where I received my first lessons in storytelling, which later provided the impetus to choose meaty stories and scripts for my work. Every day as the trading closed in the market of Qissa Khwani Bazaar, a storyteller would sit in the centre of the square narrating stories of valour and victory, deceit and retribution which I would listen to with wide-eyed attention, seated next to my father and uncles.”
Restoration work underway
As per the latest reports, the Peshawar district administration visited Kumar’s house as well as the Kapoor Haveli on Wednesday for a survey and measurements. According to details, the deputy commissioner and revenue staff will determine the value of the land. Both buildings are in dilapidated conditions. While only the outer walls of Kumar’s house remain, the Kapoor Haveli is in a better condition. The owners of the houses had planned to demolish them and build plazas instead but the government has registered cases against the owners and prevented them from tearing them down. Reports have further suggested that the owner of the house has demanded Rs 2 billion for Kumar’s house.
Kapoor Haveli
The Archaeology Department has already allocated funds to buy the houses and plans to restore them and convert them into museums are already underway. According to details, the museums will feature biographies and photographs of the actors, their affiliation with Peshawar, along with other records of the two artists and their families.
Director of KP’s Archeology and Museums Department Dr Abdul Samad said that the plan to restore the Havelis is “part of the Peshawar revival plan.”
Earlier, Kumar’s wife Saira Banu had praised the government’s decision to restore her husband’s childhood home.
Dilip Kumar and Saira Banu
“I wish the provincial government success in its efforts and sincerely hope that this time the dream comes true. MashAllah,” the actor had said. “My heart fills up with joy each time I receive the same news about the ancestral home of Yousuf Saheb in Peshawar which the provincial government has been repeatedly trying to turn into a monument for posterity. It has come up so many times in the past and I have appreciated the tenacity with which the government is pursuing the mission of turning the house into a museum for the public to visit and feel the vintage charm of the house where Dilip Saheb grew up like any bright boy of the province.”
It is pertinent to mention here that Shah Rukh Khan’s ancestral home is also located in the old city of Peshawar. Khan is reported to have visited the city twice during his childhood.
The wife of Indian actor Dilip Kumar, Saira Banu, has expressed her delight about recent reports of his ancestral home being purchased by the government for conservation in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
Kumar’s ancestral house is located at the Qissa Khwani Bazar and is over 100 years old.
Saira Banu told the ETimes: “I wish the provincial government success in its efforts and sincerely hope that this time the dream comes true. Mashallah.”
“My heart fills up with joy each time I receive the same news about the ancestral home of Yousuf Saheb in Peshawar in northwest Frontier province which the provincial government has been repeatedly trying to turn into a monument for posterity. It has come up so many times in the past and I have appreciated the tenacity with which the government is pursuing the mission of turning the house into a museum for the public to visit and feel the vintage charm of the house where Dilip Saheb grew up like any bright boy of the province,” she added
She said that they visited the house some years ago, and that the actor got emotional as he recalled his childhood memories.
“The house is of great sentimental value to my husband and I have shared his pride and happiness during a visit to the property some years ago. He was so emotional when he saw the house where he spent his lovely childhood in the comfort and security of a large, refined family.”
Dilip Kumar is an Indian actor, producer and philanthropist. Kumar is 97 years old and is the only living male actor from Bollywood’s golden era of movies. The actor debuted in 1944 in the film ‘Jwar Bhata’ and has won eight Filmfare awards for the best actor so far.
