LAHORE - The historic PPL (Progressive Papers Limited) building, which housed The Pakistan Times, Daily Imroze and The Sports Times, is now being demolished to construct a commercial plaza. It remained vacant after the privatisation of The Pakistan Times and closure of Daily Imroze in 1996. The structure has another significance too, and that is, accommodating the first post office of the country, which was inaugurated by Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah. It does not stop here, as the legends like Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Maulana Chiragh Hasan Hasrat, ZA Sulehri, AT Chaudhry, Haroon Saad, Zaheer Babar, Safdar Mir and many other renowned journalists and pioneers of journalism in the early period of Pakistan remained attached to it. The purpose-built double-storey building at a piece of land measuring about four kanals in Gawalmandi opposite to the main entrance of Mayo Hospital is now a property of 'Baryar Builders and Developers of Gujranwala, which has started flattening the block to pave the ground for a multi-storey plaza. The main gate of the PPL Building now shows the signboards of the new owner who has already demolished the inner portions. It is learnt that the building in the proximity of a shopping centre in the north has been leased for 35 years to the private developer at the price of Rs 20 million only with Rs 0.75 million as monthly rent with two years recession. It is also astonishing that the sale of the important heritage was not made public as only a single daily English newspaper published from Karachi and Lahore (not The Nation) carried the advertisement. And not surprisingly, the precious record and a rare reference library owned by one of the most famous English newspapers in the country, The Pakistan Times, had been disposed off instead of handing over to any library, national newspaper or educational institution. The building with a century long history was built and housed by 'The Tribune much before the partition. However, while shifting to India, it handed over the building with a bond signing of a 'will that it would be used by a daily newspaper thus restraining its use for any other purpose. Accordingly, it was taken over by The Pakistan Times owned by Mian Iftikhar Ahmad. After the take over of The Pakistan Times by the National Press Trust (NPT) in Ayub Khans era, the building also became an asset of the NPT along with two other publications, Daily Imroze and The Sports Times. The remaining two publications of NPT were Daily Mashriq and Morning News Karachi. The Pakistan Times was privatised and taken over by Jang Group while other newspapers ceased to exist. The state organisation responsible for the management of NPT newspapers is, however, functioning to control the NPT property. It is also pertinent to mention that a retired police officer is acting as the general manager (GM) of the NPT for the last eight years with full spectrum of staff in clear defiance to the policy of restriction on extension in service or re-employment. Due to the gravity of the matter, the media veterans and Punjab Union of Journalists (PUJ) have expressed concerns over the demolishing of building, saying the archaeology department should have preserved it or a library could have been established at the historic site.