The school that is no more

86 years after its establishment, Jufelhurst Govt School was demolished recently

KARACHI: With high aims of spreading education, Sybil D'Abreo had built the Jufelhurst Government School on her own estate in 1931. She ran it on a combination of hard work and meagre funds. Not even in her wildest imagination, she would have thought that 86 years down the line, a government would come who would let her hard work get razed to the ground as it happened last Saturday night.

In the wee hours of Sunday, the residential bungalow of late Sybil D'Abreo – situated besides the school – was demolished allegedly under the supervision of the local police. There are as many as three claimants of the bungalow now and, one of them, Adnan Ali told The Express Tribune that they have all the legal documents with them.

History

The school and its founder's residential bungalow were situated on two plots, numbered GRE-356 and GRE-325. Nestled at a safe distance away from the hustle and bustle of Soldier Bazaar, the two plots are spread out over 5,704 square yards of prime real estate, surrounded by high-rise apartment buildings. But the world within the school's boundary is reminiscent of a pre-partition Karachi, where trees are taller than the buildings.



It all started when the school was nationalised in 1972. According to the official documents, a copy of which is available with The Express Tribune, the property was transferred to one of the Roman Catholic archbishops, Simeons Pereira, in 1989 by one of the D’Abreo’s family members, Vincent D’Abreo, through a gift deed.

Later, in 1993, the other heirs filed a case against the gift deed and maintained that since they were also the owners of the two plots, the property could not be gifted on the whim of just one family member. In 2003, the case was mutually settled through court and Pereira withdrew his claim over the property, after which the D’Abreo family members jointly became the owner again.

Power of attorney

In 2011, according to the official documents, Sajjad Bashir got power of attorney of the two plots through the Pakistan consulate in Los Angeles, USA, from the five D’Abreo family members. Bashir is also believed to a close family friend of D’Abreo family.



Ironically, the Karachi Building Control Authority (KBCA), now Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA), wrote a letter the same year to the Education District Officer, terming the school building ‘dangerous and dilapidated’. Later, it even seized all the buildings on it, including the bungalow, for some time.

Ambiguous bifurcation 

Then, in 2012, Plot No 356 – then measuring 4,321 square yards – was bifurcated, over which stood the residence of Sybil D'Abreo, by then assistant commissioner of Jamshed Quarters in District East, Zulfiqar Ali Mangrio. This was done after site inspection by the mukhtiarkar, stating that the plot contains an old running school and an old bungalow, according to the document. However, according to Section 18-3 of Karachi Building and Town Planning's regulations of 2002, the subdivision of any residential, commercial and industrial plots shall be allowed by the authority concerned with the approval of Master Plan department.

An official of the Master Plan department, expressing surprise over the bifurcation of the said plot, said that according to the documents, the request for bifurcation was made on October 4, 2012, and on October 6, 2012, the assistant commissioner subdivided the plot. "This is not a legal practice," the official said, adding that the subdivision of the plot takes quite some time and the case has to be approved through the Master Plan department.



Responding to this, Adnan Ali said that the fees for bifurcation were paid to the Sindh government. If the bifurcation was illegal, he said the assistant commissioner or the mukhtiarkar should be held responsible.

After the bifurcation, Plot No 356 was then converted into two. A part of the plot and the bungalow were separated from the school and given a new plot number, 356/1, which measured 1,426 square yards. Plot No 356 was left with 2,895 square yards, having the old school building alone.

Now, the school was operating on the portion comprising Plot No GRE-325 (measuring 1,327 square yards) and GRE-356 (measuring 2,895 square yards).

Declared heritage site

In 2014, the Heritage Cell of NED University wrote to the SBCA that their technical committee has enlisted multiple structures in and around the school as protected heritage sites. A copy of this document is available with The Express Tribune. In 2016, Sindh's Culture, Tourism and Antiquities (SCTA) department declared the school a heritage site, which forbade the SBCA from demolishing it.



However, according to Ali, the school and the residential bungalow are separate properties and the bungalow was never declared a heritage site, even according to the SCTA's notification.

Responding to this, one of the heritage committee members, Dr Anila Naeem, said the bungalow was very much part and parcel of the school and was declared a heritage site. There is an inventory form, which tells the Sindh's advisory committee for heritage why the certain property has been declared heritage. With that inventor, she explained, a map is attached that shows how many buildings are declared heritage on that property and according to that map, the bungalow was declared a heritage site, which can now be proved in court.

Even for demolition of any building, one needs an NOC from the SBCA, said Naeem, adding that those who razed the structure did not have it with them. To this, Ali said the SBCA had already declared the building hazardous and since it was their property they could demolish it.

Sale deed

In October 2016, Plot No 356/1 was sold to Muhammad Abid Shabbi with 45% undivided share, Zeeshan with 45% share and Adnan Ali with 10% share, by its owner, Sajjad Bashir, through a sale deed, against which approximately Rs2.8 million was also paid to the government exchequer by the new owners in taxes.



For this sale deed, the power of attorney of Bashir was sent for verification through the ministry of foreign affairs to the Consulate-General of Pakistan in the US, which was verified by them and was later returned to Pakistan. A copy of this document is also available with The Express Tribune. After completing all the necessary legal process, the bungalow was transferred in the name of its new owners in the month of March this year.

Sindh government

Had the Sindh government taken the slightest interest in education and its cultural heritage sites, said an official of the Master Plan department, it could have taken over the entire property in its custody after paying compensation to its owners and nothing like that would have happened.

Sadly, the school is now no more.