Heritage site: District admin seals shops at Larkana ladies club

Two shops and a portion of the club had been encroached upon

KARACHI: One of the shops of the Ladies Club in Larkana that had been encroached upon was sealed by the district administration on Wednesday. A notice was served to the other shop asking those occupying the premises to vacate it.

This was done in response to a suo motu notice taken by the chief justice of Pakistan on a report published in The Express Tribune last month. The hearing will be held in Islamabad on Thursday (today).

The Gomibai Jawaharmal Ladies Club was built by a Hindu deputy collector, who named it after his sister. On January 3, 1934, the club was inaugurated by Mrs RE Gibson, the wife of a senior British bureaucrat.  The club has around 107 members and it runs without any financial support from the government.

The shops are part of the property belonging to the club and had been occupied by the land grabbers for the last couple of years.

Besides the shops, a small portion of the historical building has also been encroached upon.

The Chief Justice of Pakistan, Justice Nasirul Mulk, took notice of the report on February 14 and issued notices to the Larkana district administration and office bearers of the club to appear before the court.

While talking to The Express Tribune, Dr Sabiha Mughal, the chairperson of the club said that the deputy commissioner of Larkana had sealed the shop but some influential people were threatening the club’s office bearers. “The apex court has also issued a notice for me to appear in court on Thursday but I will go on the next hearing as we received the notice late,” she said discussing the action taken by the district administration. She claimed that it looked like the administration had just taken ‘cosmetic’ action to show that they were doing their job.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 12^th, 2015.