By Fakhar Alam

Kings Gardens, commonly known ‘Shahi Bagh’ constructed during the Mughal era in the heart of Peshawar City is all set to regain its past glory and become the centre of attraction for tourists following the completion of the ongoing massive repair and uplift works initiated under the ‘Peshawar Revival Plan’ to be completed by the end of this year.
Established by Mughals and later developed by Durrani rulers, Shahi Bagh located on the backside of Firdus bazaar at Fiqarabad area on Peshawar-Charsadda Road is currently undergoing through massive development, restoration and face uplift works launched by the incumbent government in October last year to restore its grandeur and make it again a centre of attraction for domestic and foreign tourists besides providing better recreational facilities to Peshawarties.
In the past, Shahi Bagh was a prime choice of the foreign dignitaries and diplomats as when they used to arrive Peshawar, it was a must to visit the bagh and spend some time under the tall trees in nerve-soothing environment. The first British envoy, Mountstuart Elphinstone had highly praised its natural beauty in his memoir ‘Kingdom of Caubul’ when he visited Peshawar in 1809.
Originally built on 800 kanal of land with lush green lawns, fountains and dense trees, Shahi Bagh was a unique and boundless source of joy and laughter for small kids while seeing colorful butterflies hovering over multi-color bunches of flowers in the South Asia’s oldest gardens where greenery had started fading due to improper up-keeping, encroachment and urbanization.
“When I was young I used to visit this historical park for exercise on its beautiful tracks snaking through its thickly grown canopy trees with people sitting around in sprawled lawns with children playing around them,” said Misal Khan, 80, a retired Information Officer while talking to APP.
“The chasing of butterflies, hide and seek of children among thickly grown trees and bunch of red roses used to be a big fun, especially for kids but all these charms wore-off due to encroachments made with times in the form of unplanned buildings, establishment of fun-lands and marriages halls, which had reduced green space in this historic gardens,” he said.
“The international traders, businessmen and merchants had also visited Shahi Bagh before departing to Central Asia, Afghanistan and the Subcontinent,” he recalled. “After nearly 35 years, I visited Shahi Bagh today. I am disappointed to miss the chirping birds, colorful butterflies and ladybirds due to vanishing of canopy trees and flowers here due to negligence and massive encroachment,” he added.
However, he expressed satisfaction over the ongoing uplift works at Shahi Bagh, especially maintenance of its lawns, fountains and construction of Ladies Parks on 83 kanals. “Shahi Bagh is the identity of Peshawar and it must be preserved without compromising on its originality and all the encroachment on its premises should be immediately removed to restore its original grandeur,” he said.
“Shahi Bagh is a protected national heritage under Antiquities and National Heritage Act,” Latifur Rehman, Spokesperson Tourism and Archaeology Department told APP. “Any garden, monument and historical place, which is 100 years old or above, comes under the National Heritage Act and acquires the status of national heritage automatically,” he said.
Shahi Bagh has witnessed first uplift work when the Awami National Party-led coalition government had started its face-uplift and beautification in 2009. Later, on October 3, 2012, Peshawar High Court (PHC) had ordered the KP Government to remove all illegally built structures in the premises of Shahi Bagh with the observation that it was a protected monument and its original area should be recovered. Later, the court also ordered the secretaries concerned to submit an inclusive revival plan for Shahi Bagh.
Accepting the challenge, the incumbent Government had launched an ambitious Peshawar Revival Plan for the uplift of provincial capital including restoration and face uplift of Shahi Bagh and constituted a committee of experts from various sections of the society for the effective implementation of the project on ground.
Engineer Muhammad Riaz of the Local Government and Rural Development Department, who is supervising the entire uplift work on Shahi Bagh said that massive repair and renovation work was launched at Shahi Bagh in October last year. In the first phase, he said, all encroachments were removed from the historical gardens and expressed the hope to complete the entire uplift works by the end of this year.
He informed that 121.75 kanals encroached lands of Shahi Bagh have been reclaimed following PHC’s orders. The reclaimed lands include 24 kanals of the Pardah Bagh and a wedding hall, 34.75 kanals land of the Funland and 63 kanals used by Traffic Police for parking of impounded vehicles, he said, adding the total area of Shahi Bagh has now increased to 205 kanals.
Out of 121.7 kanals of reclaimed land, he said, 39.75 kanals were included in Shahi Bagh and 83 kanals were allocated for developing a state-of-the-art Ladies Park. The ladies’ park would be constructed with an estimated cost of Rs 179 million with all modern facilities including indoor and outdoor gyms, jogging tracks and separate playing area for children.
Old fountain tiles have been replaced with super white marble and electricity wires and motors were concealed underground to enhance beauty of the fountains. Work on improvement of jogging track, lawns and plantations have almost been completed and wooden benches, dustbins and new lighting system were put in place in the park besides the development of a two kilometers soft jogging trail for senior citizens.

https://www.app.com.pk/features/shahi-bagh-historical-gardens-of-mughal-era-set-to-become-centre-of-attraction-for-tourists/