Multan city will be preserved on Pattern of Fez city of Morocco

MULTAN, July 2: Where restoration and preservation work is under way on the shrine of Hazrat Musa Pak Shaheed in Multan, his tomb in Uch Sharif is crumbling away.

Sheikh Abdul Hasan Hafiz Jamaluddin Musa, also known as Musa Pak Shaheed, is a descendant of Hazrat Abdul Qadir Gilani and son of Syed Hamid Bakhsh. He was born in Uch Sharif in 1545 AD and martyred in Multan in 1601. Initially, he was buried in Uch Sharif, but later his body was shifted to Multan, says Multan-based intellectual Riffat Abbas.

The tomb in Uch Sharif is among 52 monuments to be preserved on the pattern of Moroccan city Fez, but no preservation work has been started here so far. Intellectual Javed Akhtar Bhatti said the monument of Uch Sharif, which had an octagonal dome, was the type of architecture copied by other tombs in Uch Sharif.

He said each octagon had been provided a corner turret and the facing of the turret had been divided into bands of various sizes decorated with finished tiles. He said the tomb could collapse any time, as the building was in a bad condition because of apathy of the authorities concerned.

It was under the supervision of the federal archaeology department and the cost of its renovation and restoration was estimated, but no further work was done.

Now the tomb has been given in the control of the provincial government and a report about its condition will be sent to authorities soon.

The saint`s shrine in Multan is being preserved by the Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation at the cost of $22,358. Malik Ghulam Muhammad, in-charge of the Punjab Archaeology Department in Multan, said first installment had been released for restoration work on the shrine.