LAHORE, 26 October 2016 — Following the completion of the conservation and rehabilitation of the 75x8m Northern Façade of the Wazir Khan Mosque by the Aga Khan Cultural Service Pakistan (AKCSP), with the generous financial support from the Royal Norwegian Embassy and Aga Khan Trust for Culture, and facilitated by the Walled City of Lahore Authority (WCLA), a simple ceremony was held at the Mosque. A plaque was unveiled by His Excellency Norwegian Ambassador Mr. Tore Nedrebo and DG WCLA Mr. Kamran Lashari, in the presence of CEO AKCSP Mr. Salman Beg, members of the Wazir Khan Mosque Committee, as well as representatives of the conservation team that worked on the various phases of the project from July 2014 – June 2016.

Built in 1634-35, by Hakim Ilmuddin in the reign of Shah Jehan, the Wazir Khan Mosque complex was a primary central element of the Walled City, and included the mosque itself, the Chowk (an introductory urban space) a row of shops (hujras) integrated in the entrance system meant specifically for calligraphers and bookbinders, and additional shops on the Eastern and Northern Façades built into the body of the monument. The profuse architectural decorations that embellish its exterior and interior surfaces, most predominantly its kashikari (glazed-tile mosaic work), are a singular outstanding attribute that places the mosque in the frontline of the major monuments of the world.

Phase I of the project involved the removal of encroachments and dense overhead cables, the archaeological excavation of a 300 cubic-meter trench along the Façade with a retaining wall that exposed the original floor level and hujras (chambers) built into the Façade, and the construction of a soakage well for the drainage of the trench. Phase II involved the detailed documentation of the Façade, the structural consolidation of the excavated hujras,  conservation of the architectural embellishments including cut-and-dressed brickwork, carved brickwork, brick imitation work, and restoration of terracotta screens, woodwork and missing masonry elements. For the sensitive issue regarding the conservation of glazed tile mosaics, a detailed value assessment of material‐physical, phenomenological and cultural‐social values of the Mosque was conducted in order to establish prototype panels and a justifiable course for their conservation.

The AKCSP conservation team was headed by Manager Conservation Shukurullah Baig, and includes architects Rashid Makhdum (consultant), Naheed Iftikhar, Mehwish Bandealy, Kashif Essa, Usama Farooq, and engineers Amna Jabeen and Haider Ali. Work on the Façade was completed on 30^th June 2016.

Kamran Lashari ( Director General WCLA): The rehabilitation of the Northern Façade and the adaptive reuse of its hujras for the sale of traditional handicrafts will highlight the rich Mughal heritage of the Wazir Khan Mosque in the Walled City of Lahore, and will form a template for the conservation of the entire mosque when the latter is put into effect. The completion of this projects comes at the heels of the UNESCO award-winning success of the Shahi Hammam conservation project, and foreshadows the completion of the ongoing conservation of the US funded Chowk Wazir Khan.

Salman Beg (CEO Aga Khan Culture Services Pakistan ): A comprehensive documentation of the Mosque was carried out and published in 2012 by a technical team of conservation architects and engineers from AKCSP, to determine the range of problems and issues faced by the Mosque. As efforts to secure funds for the conservation of the entire Mosque were bound to take time, the conservation was broken up into phases that could be individually funded from different sources. The rehabilitation of the Northern Façade was therefore initiated as the first element of conservation, seeing as the encroachments and 8 feet of cultural fill had defaced and weakened the foundations of the Mosque and were threatening its stability.