Islamabad: The ancestral home of legendary Indian film star Dilip Kumar in Peshawar, capital of Pakistan’s northwestern province, has been declared a protected monument.
A newspaper on Saturday quoted director for archaeology and museums Dr Abdul Samad as saying the house of the veteran actor has been notified as a protected monument under Pakistan’s 1997 Antiquity Act.
Dilip Kumar was born at the small house located in historic Qissa Khwani Bazaar in Peshawar in December 1922 and lived there for 12 years before moving to Mumbai.
Pakistan had conferred the Nishan-i-Imtiaz award on the actor in 1998 and recently Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif declared his ancestral house a national heritage.
Dr Samad said the next step for the government would be to preserve and resore the dilapidated structure, put it on the list of heritage sites and then open it to the public.
The government would acquire the almost 100-year house by fixing an apropirate price, he said.
The ancestral house of another great of Indian cinema, the late Raj Kapoor, is aso in Peshawar.
Meanwhile, veteran Pakistani journalist Majeed Nizami, publisher and editor-in-chief of Nawa-i-Waqt group, passed away early Saturday at the age of 86 in his hometown Lahore following a cardiac ailment, the state-run radio said.
The funeral prayers for him in the capital city of the Punjab province were attended by a large number of people from all walks of life.
Majeed Nizami had been in the field of journalism for almost half a century.
As a student, he actively participated in the movement for the creation of Pakistan.
