KARACHI: Demolishing a building was easy, but in order to do so you need a demolition permit from the Sindh Building Control Authority, said NED University’s Prof Noman Ahmad while talking to Dawn on Monday with regard to the demolition of the Jufelhurst School structure late on Saturday night.

He added that it is standard procedure for a party to submit a demolition plan before asking the SBCA for permission. It must be investigated if a permit had been issued, “if not, then it’s a case of double jeopardy”. A notification listing the school as a heritage site was issued last year. It is possible that someone might have applied for a demolition permit earlier, “but now as it is a heritage building that permit should be null and void,” he explained. The Sindh government’s heritage committee that also has SBCA representatives as its members should look into the matter, he said.

Discussing the standard inspection mechanism of the authority, he said that even if you tried to change something small in your house — in Gulshan or Clifton, “the SBCA will come and check up so how come they didn’t do it here? Where was the building controller of the area?”

Prof Ahmed’s questions remained unanswered as the headmaster of the 86-year-old Jufelhurst Government Secondary School scrambled to organise his school for the day after unidentified men razed a building on the school property. Mohammad Shafiq has been dealing with one problem after the other. Over the weekend he was busy trying to save his school and then lodge a First Information Report (FIR) with the local police. This was finally done on Monday morning when a culture department official, Syed Abid Husain, lodged the FIR (87/2017) against three suspects, Zeeshan, Abid and Adnan with the Soldier Bazaar police. The case was registered under Sections 427 (mischief causing damage to the amount of fifty rupees), 447 (criminal trespass) and 511 (attempt to commit offences punishable with imprisonment for life or for a shorter terms) of the Pakistan Penal Code, said Soldier Bazaar SHO Irshad Soomro.

Besides the case, the headmaster was also concerned as to how more than 300 students could be accommodated at the school in this condition for their SSC exam of Computer Science on April 15.

Recalling Saturday night’s incident, Mr Shafiq said: “When I learnt that some people had broken into the school, I got here immediately and told them to stop what they were doing.” The entire neighbourhood had stood behind him as he tried to stop the trespassers from demolishing Sybil D’Abreo’s house, he added.

“But these namaloom afraad did not stop. They kept saying that the property was theirs and they could and would do as they pleased,” he said.

“When we told them that this was a protected heritage site as of 2016, they just refused and did not leave till the police intervened. But it did not stop there. Around 7am on Sunday morning they returned and demolished the house,” he added. Along with the house, which was built in 1928, two classrooms located next to the residence of Ms D’Abreo were also destroyed.

Summaiya, a Class IX student at Jufelhurst School, was standing on the remains of Ms D’Abreo’s house. The teenager and her friends were having snacks during their lunch break as other students decided to gather and stage a protest demonstration. The girls said they were aware that something had happened at the school but were not entirely sure what.

Mohammad Athar, an alumnus of the school, has been working with the principal to save Jufelhurst for the past decade. “That night they destroyed the outer wall on D’Abreo Street, and then moved towards the school,” he said. “I got a call from the staff at around 12.30am. By the time I got here they had already demolished the front part of the house,” Mr Athar said, adding that the people who came with bulldozers and machines had their “faces covered with surgical masks”.

Restoration work

Architect Marvi Mazhar, who had spent a good part of last year documenting the school and preparing a proposal for the building’s restoration, was shocked to learn the news. “We started working on this in January 2016. We did the groundwork. The D’Abreo house was idle at the time and we decided that the secondary section could easily be accommodated. We also found lots of ceramic pots, letters from the 1930s,” she added.

She said the education secretary had promised to restore two of the barracks and have a look at the feasibility plan for which she would be meeting him this week.

The principal, Mr Athar, and the former education secretary of Sindh were very helpful in this, she said, adding that she handed over the file and all other documents to the heritage committee later that year.

Anila Naeem, a member of the committee, said they had written a letter to the culture secretary.

“This is not the first case, they [builders/contractors] have done this to a Parsi funeral home which was demolished illegally,” she said.

“Once a building becomes a heritage site, it is protected. It has legal cover,” she said, adding that the committee had to be approached before any renovation on such properties.

Discussing Karachi Building and Town Planning laws and bylaws, Ms Naeem said the SCBA could not permit anyone to construct a building on an illegally demolished property.

Inquiry ordered

Meanwhile, the Inspector General of Police, A.D. Khowaja, ordered Additional IG (Special Branch) Dr Aftab Pathan to hold an inquiry into the incident to find out if some police officers were allegedly involved in demolishing “one side of the boundary wall, two classrooms and four rooms of the adjacent heritage building situated on the premises of Jufelhurst Government Secondary School, Soldier Bazaar, Karachi.”

The officer was directed to hold a ‘discreet enquiry’ into the matter and furnish his detailed report along with his specific recommendations for the perusal of the police chief within three days, added the order issued on Monday.

Published in Dawn, April 11th, 2017