THIS refers to a disturbing news, “Culture department asked to remove 55 ‘dangerous’ buildings from heritage list for demolition” (July 21).

According to the news reports, A Sindh Building Control Authority (SCBA) survey has found 422 ‘unsafe’ buildings, including 55 protected heritage structures in Karachi.

Cynically speaking, does this mean 422 more golden opportunities for the construction mafia? The news brings back bitter memories of how the construction mafia systemically and in cahoots with the officials of Karachi Development Authority (KDA) turned a beautiful city into a vulgar concrete jungle. Many of these ‘thickets’ sprouted on the debris of beautiful old buildings.

As a senior citizen, one was witness to the establishment of KDA in the year 1957. Karachi was under the federal government till then.

The KDA’s charter included preparation of the master plan and development schemes and projects for the city, such as health and sanitation, housing, water supply, sewerage disposal etc.

Starting from 1950, this poor city has seen a number of master plans for its development. However, all the plans and schemes seem to have been prepared to create and nourish a culture in which the officials and the building mafia could have a field day and flourish.

Not that the citizens were unconcerned. The city has seen many NGOs and initiatives from well-meaning groups trying to prevent KDA, Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) and a horde of construction companies from playing havoc with the city’s environment.

Not only Gulshan-i-Iqbal and Gulistan-i-Jauhar, many other areas in the city, too, were their hunting grounds. The first campaign to save the architectural heritage of Karachi, called Vanishing Karachi, was launched in 1983 when The Star carried a weekly half-page write-up with photographs of old buildings that ran from August 1983 to March 1984.

Seminars and exhibitions of photographs of old buildings were also held at different locations, in addition to editorials and publication of articles by reputed journalists and writers. Many fine old colonial buildings could not escape the developers’ hammer.

As if to silence the dissenting voices, a full page advertisement was released by the Sindh government in Dawn on Sept 21, 1995, captioned ‘Notification (Protected Heritage)’. It said: “In exercise of powers conferred by sub-section (1) of Section 6 of the Sindh Cultural Heritage (Preservation) Act 1994 the Government of Sindh are pleased to declare the premises described in the schedule below to be protected heritage within the meaning of the said Act.”

The schedule has the names and addresses of 194 protected heritage buildings in Karachi. Isn’t this a fit case for a suo motu action by the courts?

S.M. Shahid

Karachi

Published in Dawn, July 30th, 2020