Residences of Speaker, Dy Speaker in JS complex

Now, the buildings face the prospect of demolition with an enormous cost to the exchequer -- thanks to the incurable stubbornness with which the plans were pursued by the works ministry despite the dissuading efforts by Bangladesh Paribesh Andolon (BPA) in tandem with the Institute of Architects, Bangladesh (IAB).

The chronology of events is a study in total insensitivity to public and civil society demands for abandoning the project since its very inception. At the planning stages, back in 1997, the architects and environmentalists had vehemently opposed the idea with the result that it got dropped at that time. That should have been the end of the matter, but it was not to be -- the appetite for land grabbing under any garb being a national pastime and the other trait being to present something as a fait accompli from which there will be no going back.

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In October 2002, the construction work began in the open swathe left as a breathing space for the public in Louis Kahn's original design. Seven months later, HC in an order in May stayed the construction work, but three months on, the then Chamber Judge Justice Syed J R Mudassir Hossain stayed the HC order. Now, with the latest HC verdict, the defendant could go to the Supreme Court Appellate Division.

The latest High Court judgement is a fairly comprehensive one in that the government has been asked to declare the parliament building as part of national heritage. Kahn's masterpiece has already had a pride of place as a monument of world architecture. Let's preserve it in its entirety without further ado.