Goodbye Walton?- Ahmad Rafay Alam

Nasreen Jalil of the MQM used to take flying lessons at the Karachi Aero Club, on the Country Club Road. The road name is history, as is the club. Gulshan housing has swallowed the runway. Ahmed is writing about a similar fate for the Lahore Aero Club ~~~t

The Chief Minister has been making noises, all reported in the press, of how his government will provide parks to the people of Lahore. These public parks are the recreational facilities that are needed to make this city more liveable and to create a sense of community. The Walton Airport property and the Birdwood Barracks both present him with once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to create public parks in the centre of Lahore. Such opportunities will never come up in the future and the price of land prohibits the government acquiring it to build public parks.

Meanwhile, farewell Walton Airport. It is sad to see a city landmark offered up to sacrifice before the Powers That Be, but one has to look at the airport in the context of today’s city. Walton has ceased being relevant to today’s Lahore and will pay the ultimate price for doing so. Such changes are part of the natural evolution of a city. One just hopes that its memory can be properly preserved so that its role in the history of the city and country (it was the airstrip Muhammad Ali Jinnah used when he first arrived in an independent Lahore) can be preserved....