HYDERABAD: The Hyderabad circuit of the Sindh High Court on Wednesday stayed construction work at Dialdas Club, a heritage site, till Nov 30 and directed a judicial official to inspect the site.

A division bench comprising Justices Salahuddin Panhwar and Mohammad Iqbal Maher passed the order on a petition filed by Tahir Khan, a member of the club, and issued notices to the additional advocate general and other respondents asking them to appear in court on Nov 30.

The petitioner had cited as respondents the chief secretary, chairman of Sindh Heritage Committee, secretary of culture, commissioner and mayor of Hyderabad, regional director of Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA), Hassan Ali Memon, Dialdas Club president Aslam Khan, the general secretary and contractor and catering service provider Umer Rajput.

The petitioner’s counsel, Advocate Noor Ahmed, said the club was founded in 1922 under the Sindh Cooperative Society Act 1860 and was declared as heritage property on May 20, 2011. “Section 18 of the Sindh Cultural Heritage (Preservation) Act, 1994, said that any change in heritage property is not permissible whereas management of Dialdas Club is actively constructing a wedding hall in the club in complete negation of the law,” he said.

In response to the petitioner’s request, the court appointed assistant registrar Iqbal Ahmed Memon as commissioner to inspect the site and submit a report clearly explaining whether any marriage hall was under construction or any change was being made by the respondents in the club’s building.

The petitioner said the club was registered with the Cooperative Societies Hyderabad and it was purchased by Seth Dialdas Mulchand in 1920 from the HMC. The club’s objective was to promote social interaction and cultural activities, he said.

He said the Sindh culture department had declared the club building as a cultural heritage through a notification on May 20, 2011. The club’s managing committee invited tenders for operating, decorating and catering services on Jan 16, 2016, for the construction of a banquet in the open space of the club, which must be an air conditioned wedding hall, he said.

He said that tenders were called for decorating and catering services and not for constructing a ‘banquet’ but the committee later allowed the contractor in a mala fide manner to build the banquet although it had no right to accord such permission.

He said the contractor had dug up deep holes to fix iron poles after dismantling unique and antique stones of the floor. The contractor and the committee were equally responsible for damaging the heritage property, he said.

He said that he had submitted a complaint to the SBCA director who issued a notice to the committee on Oct 13, 2016, asking it to remove unauthorised construction in three days failing which legal action would be taken under the Sindh Building Control Ordinance, 1979.

He asked the court to restrain the respondents from carrying out illegal construction, order demolition of the structure erected so far and restoration of the heritage property to its original shape.

Boy’s mysterious death case

The same bench directed home department to form a joint interrogation team (JIT) to investigate the death of an 11-year-old boy, Inder Vineet Hotwani, who had apparently drowned in the Sindh government’s Hyderabad Club.

The bench was seized with a petition filed by the 11-year-old victim’s parents, Dr Chetan Das Hotwani and Baby Bai Hotwani.

The bench ordered home department to sett up a JIT equipped with all advanced technology and ensure that delinquents were arraigned.

Assistant Advocate GeneralAshfaq Nabi Qazi sought three weeks time for the notification of the JIT and further one month to complete the exercise.

While the club administration insists that the boy drowned while swimming in the pool, Advocate Sajjad Chandio, the counsel for the petitioners, alleged that the young Hotwani was murdered and that his clients were in possession of such evidence.

The boy was taken out of the club’s pool when he was drowning on April 13 and died during treatment at a hospital 10 days later.

The counsel citing hectic efforts to collect evidence and lodge an FIR in the following months prayed to court to order the setting up of a JIT. His request was not opposed by the AAG.

The petitioners had earlier informed court that no post-mortem examination of the body was performed but the Aga Khan University Hospital report suggested that there was no evidence of collection of water in the lungs. They also claimed that there were marks of violence on the body.

Published in Dawn, November 10th, 2016