Former union minister and senior Congress leader Prof Saifuddin Soz, has pitched for heritage status to the house of former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah at Soura here.
Soz said he had learnt about dilapidated condition of thehouse from a story published in Greater Kashmir last year.
“I decided to visit Soura on April 30. It was ashocking experience for me to see a mound of bricks and stones. Locals lamentedthat the house of historic importance remained neglected for years before itfell to ground last year. I told a group of people that gathered there, thatnow there was only one option for a person like me to urge the ArchaeologicalSurvey of India to declare the premises as a Heritage site,” Soz said in astatement.
“The elders in thegathering said that when they were young, they had seen very prominent peoplefrequenting the house. Then, I reminded them that apart from Mahatma Gandhi,Jawaharlal Nehru, Gaffar Khan, Abdul Samad Khan Uchakzai, Maulana Azad and theluminaries from the other side such as Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Mian Amiruddin,Mohammad Din Taseer, Sheikh Sadiq Hassan and others having visited thishouse,” he said.
Elaborating he said”I also told them that it was here that Pakistan’s emissary Sheikh SadiqHassan had met Sheikh Saheb and Gulam Ahmad Ashai to discuss Kashmir’sfuture.”
“I further told thegathering that it was a great privilege in my own life to have met late SheikhSahib near the Chinar Tree alongwith Sahibzada Hassan Shah, (the then PrincipalM.A.M College, Jammu) and Prof. G.N. Sidiqi in 1966. The first thing I did onmy return was to take up the issue with the Director General, ArchaeologicalSurvey of India Usha Sharma to urge her to declare the premises as a heritagesite,” Soz added.