Islamabad - The historical Pharwala Fort located on the left bank of Soan River, about 40-km away from the federal capital on the Keral Hills, has been ruined due to negligence of the authorities concerned.

The Pharwala Fort, about five kilometres north of Aliote village on Kahuta Road, was constructed in 11th century by Sultan Kaigohar Gakhar. The fort has a total area of 4079.15 kanals of land. The fort had total seven gates, of which only three namely Soan, Lashkari and Hathi exist but not in good shape.

Keeping in view its archaeological and historical importance, the fort was declared as a protected monument under Antiquities Act 1975 by the ministry of culture.

According to an official source, the fort comes under the jurisdiction of Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) after the devolution under the 18th Constitutional Amendment and no step has been taken since then for its preservation by the ICT authorities. After the destruction of the Fort by the Sikh rulers, it was left deserted. With the passage of time its structure gradually decayed due to natural and human destructive forces, turning it into ruins.

Later on local inhabitants occupied the fort for their dwellings and constructed their houses by removing bricks and sand stone blocks from the structural remains of the fort, the source said.

Most of the structure of the fort is in much dilapidated condition while some parts of the interior of the fort is occupied by the modern houses of the villagers and rest of the area is used for cultivation purpose.

Like other archaeological sites of Sarai Kharboza and Rawat

Fort, this heritage site was also neglected and no step has been taken since many years for its preservation, the source said.

The officials of Department of Archaeology and Museums (DOAM), when contacted, said that the authority had forwarded proposals to the concerned ministry for preservation of decaying sites in capital.