(MENAFN- AsiaNet News) An official has said that the late actor Dilip Kumar's ancestral home in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region, a national heritage, is almost on the verge of collapse after being severely damaged in the recent rains. The torrential rains fully exposed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) Archive Department's tall claims about the rehabilitation and renovation of the house.
Kumar was born in 1922 in the house, located in Mohallah Khudadad at the back side of historic Qissa Khwani Bazar in Peshawar city, and spent his initial 12 years here before leaving for India in 1932. The house was declared Pakistan's national heritage monument on July 13, 2014, by then-Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
Kumar had visited his house once and sentimentally kissed the soil. Shakeel Waheedullah Khan, Secretary of Heritage Council KPK province, said the recent rains in Peshawar badly damaged Kumar's house.
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Despite pledging so many grants by the previous KPK government, not a single penny has been spent on this national heritage to protect and preserve it, he said on the property that was built in 1880.
The property being so old, its reservation is the government's responsibility, he said. Local socio-political circles have expressed grave concern over the archive department's attitude toward preventing the national asset from collapsing.
The claims of the Department of Archive remained limited to press statements as on the ground no steps were taken to prevent the national heritage from natural calamity, they say.
Tourists visiting the house from across the world became disappointed after seeing the dilapidated condition of the historic asset. Muhammad Ali Mir, who was looking after the house before the Archive Department took it over, said he was properly looking after it with great care.
The house's condition started deteriorating after it was taken over by the Archive Department and its rehab and renovation process remained restricted to news statements.
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Today the property has turned into a ghost house. "Kumar had great love and respect for the people of Peshawar and, unfortunately, our department could do nothing to protect his house from being collapsed," he said. The actor, who died on July 7, 2021, in Mumbai at 98, had a particular fondness for Peshawar and often reflected on his boyhood experiences there.
In 1997, he was granted Pakistan's highest civilian decoration, the Nishan-e-Imtiaz.
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