Court dismisses plea seeking Khanabadosh Café’s restoration
PHOTO: FILE
The Sindh High Court (SHC) dismissed on Wednesday a petition filed by civil society representatives seeking the restoration of Khanabadosh Writers' Café - a place for literary-cum-commercial activities under private management on the premises of Sindh Museum, Hyderabad.
"Even the entity of Khanabadosh Writers' Cafe and its canteen is undetermined," the Hyderabad circuit bench observed in its order.
The petition seeking the café's reopening was filed in July 2019, after the Sindh culture department sealed the space located in a small hall, as well as a canteen in the idyllic Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Children Park on the museum's premises.
The place was initially rented out for 11 months on February 15, 2015 to the University of Sindh's Professor Salma Begum Laghari alias Amar Sindhu. It was inaugurated in May 2015 and since then it had been arranging literary activities besides running the canteen on a commercial basis.
The department had also cut off power and water supply to the cafe after serving a final notice to Sindhu on Jul 16, 2019, notifying her to vacate the place and clear dues worth Rs4.29 million.
However, the SHC had instantly ordered the department to maintain the status quo and restore the power and water supply to the café.
The department had claimed that the café's electricity bill had accumulated to Rs29.15 million by that time, and the water bill to Rs265,000.
Sindhu had contended that the cafe had not been provided separate electricity and water connections.
The petitioners, comprising a group of 12 lecturers, writers and activists, had argued that the department's officials were preventing the cafe from organising literary activities by trying to seal the place.
"They further prayed for restoration of electricity and water connection [but] without any justification with regards to any right over the land," the court observed.
The SHC further noted that the petitioners could not satisfy the court as to what was their right on the place in question.
"The petition on these facts is misconceived and is accordingly dismissed," the court ruled.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 17th, 2020.