Karachi may have once been the gateway to British India, but Saddar is now a gateway to the city’s past. And like the rest of the old city, it has largely fallen to ruin. However, efforts are underway to renovate and rethink how Saddar can be best utilised as public space.

In light of these efforts, the Herald reached out to a few eminent citizens who call Karachi home to discover what Saddar means to them, and how they would envision its future. Here are some highlights.

Hasan Ali Khan

Assistant Professor at the School of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, Habib University

"Its legacy, as told to me by veteran architect and urban planner Arif Hasan, is its recreation as an icon to express the writ of the colonial administration after the Mutiny of 1857."

The crumbling facades of Saddar's Bolton Market.

Durriya Kazi

A Karachi-based artist, who heads the Department of Visual Studies, University of Karachi

"While I would love to say restore buildings, create historical precincts, pedestrianise areas, revive trams, create walks with plaques recounting the history of buildings and streets, I know this is not possible. This area is an important commercial centre and cannot be disturbed for some romantic nostalgia. What I would do instead is focus on Sundays downtown. The area is mostly deserted on Sundays. It could be pedestrianised on Sundays, cleaned, and by the late afternoon, when Sunday wanderers surface, be full of stalls serving different foods, music , street theatre, tea shops, book stalls, crafts, art exhibitions, the occasional open air concert, street cricket and other sports, cycling, or even cycle rickshas. Schools could have educational fairs, competitions."

Bottles pictured in a cabinet at a stall in 'Boltal Gali' in Saddar.

Bilal Tanweer

A writer, translator and author of The Scatter Here is Too Great

"We need to eschew the idea that Saddar – or any other place – essentially means one particular thing, and instead embrace the multiplicity of realities of a place. It is precisely an essentialist view of Saddar which has recently allowed the city magistrate to order a displacement of hawkers, terming them ‘encroachers’ in order to make their displacement easier and possible."

Shahana Rajani

A curator and educator

"On the surface, restoring colonial buildings to their past glory seems like a good cause. But we need to ask: Restoration and beautification along whose standards? The political elite’s, of course."

This article was published in the Herald June 2014 issue. To read the full article subscribe to the Herald.