Crumbling heritage sites beg for mercy

Among the growing jungle of fancy high-rise structures dominating the urban landscape of the Karachi, heritage buildings act as an anchor rooting the metropolitan hub to its cultural past yet as the government decides to demolish hundreds of pre-independence remnants, locals and tourists will no longer feel the intrinsic authenticity of the city.

Recently, the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) has issued notices to vacate more than 700 buildings in the city for their pending demolishment. Since a large number of these buildings are part of the pre-independence heritage of Pakistan, the decision has not been received well by critic architects, who argue that not all buildings declared as protected heritage are in a dilapidated condition and most of those with weakened structures can be saved from collapse by making the necessary repairs.

According to Shakeel Dogar, spokesperson for the SBCA, 448 buildings out of 722 buildings declared unsafe are located in areas in the South District including Saddar, Garden, Burns Road, Kharadar, Lyari and Civil Lines among other adjoining areas and the authority has issued notices to vacate these buildings immediately. "These buildings will be demolished after they are vacated. We do not demolish heritage buildings without the prior permission of the Sindh Culture Department," maintained Dogar.

"The SBCA has recently declared 99 heritage buildings in the city as dilapidated and sought permission to demolish them. The demolition was not allowed and the matter was referred to the Technical Committee. We will be able to give permission for the demolishment only after the NOC of the Technical Committee," said Abdul Fattah Sheikh, Director General of the Sindh Culture Department.

Opposing those in favour of demolition, Arif Hassan, a renowned urban planner believed that most of these buildings could be saved. "The list of the buildings declared unsafe by the SBCA should be carefully reviewed and the cultural heritage of the city should not be destroyed unnecessarily," he maintained.

Similarly, Yasmeen Lari, a renowned architect was of the opinion that most of these buildings were in a decent condition and hence their demolition could be avoided. "Some businessmen with vested interests want to construct multi-storied buildings after demolishing the heritage buildings in the city. Most of the buildings declared as heritage are still strong and there is no danger of their collapse. In fact, if all the cases of collapse of buildings in the city are reviewed each year, very few will involve buildings declared as heritage. A large number of buildings that collapse every year in the city are those that use substandard materials or are constructed against building control regulations," pointed out Lari.

Lari's assessment was confirmed by records which indicate that out of all the incidents of building collapse reported in the city during the past few years, very few involved buildings were declared as heritage sites. In 2019, at least 25 people were killed when a four-storey residential building collapsed in Rizvia Society after the builder started the construction of the fifth floor illegally. Similarly, in 2020, there were nine incidents of building collapse across different areas of the city, in which at least 50 people were killed and dozens of others injured. In May this year too, a staircase of a British-era residential building built in 1843, collapsed in Lea Market due to a lack of timely repair. Hence, it is seen that all these incidents occurred either due to illegal construction or neglect of repair work.