In a move likely to upset preservationists, the government is set to auction off a heritage bank building in Hyderabad to fund its payroll.
The building of Sindh Provincial Cooperative Bank was inaugurated in February 1935 by then Bombay (now Mumbai) governor Lord Brabourne. In 2008, it was included in the list of 85 heritage sites in Hyderabad. The building is currently managed by the Sindh Cooperative Housing Authority (SCHA).
For the past 18 months, the staff at Sindh Provincial Cooperative Bank has not been paid. Last year, they filed a petition in the Sindh High Court, which ordered in their favour. In February, the finance department issued Rs10 million, but it was less than half of the funds needed.
The provincial government has now given the go ahead to liquidate the bank, turning down requests to improve the bank on the lines of its counterparts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab. “The provincial government has opted to close it to focus on the [newly-established] Sindh Bank,” one officer alleged.
On Monday, the heritage site in ruins will be sold off to arrange money for the payment of salaries, pensions and other expenses of the bank it houses. The change of hands comes at a time when preservationists are worried about only a fraction of the historical places being recognised.
History
The Sindh Provincial Cooperative Bank was originally set up as the Sindh Central Cooperative Bank in 1919. It was financed by the Federal Bank of Cooperatives (FBC) for its short-term seasonal loans and medium-term tractor loans. Since the centre stopped funding the bank in 1989, it halted issuing new loans and has been meeting expenses from its dwindling recoveries.
“The recovered amount was around Rs4 million to Rs6 million when we stopped collecting the money in the years before the 2010 floods,” an official told The Express Tribune.
The bank still has to recover over Rs1.3 billion – Rs560 million in principal amount and over Rs850 million in interest.
Auction
With the bank’s loan recoveries drying up to a naught, the SCHA advertised the auction of its assets in the province earlier this month. The bank branches in Karachi, Hyderabad, Sanghar, Dadu, Larkana and Thatta districts as well as the vehicles were put on sale. “Some years ago, we received a Rs390-million offer for the Hyderabad branch [heritage building], but its price has now been fixed at Rs100 million,” a bank official said.
The officers are also bitter about not being included in the auction committee, calling into question the transparency of the process. According to Section 43 of the Cooperative Societies Act, the liquidation of assets has to be preceded by an inquiry to recommend grounds and causes of the failure for the sell-off.
Opposition
The first to react to the bank building sell-off was former culture secretary Gul Muhammad Umrani. “A noted real estate developer of the city has his eyes on the property and is also likely to buy it,” claims Umrani. “After sometime we will hear that something terrible happened to [the building], forcing its demolition. Soon it will give way to a plaza.” Umrani questioned the silence of Sindh Culture Minister Sassui Palijo, saying she has otherwise been stridently expressing her opinions on matters relating to culture, language and heritage.
While Palijo could not be contacted, antiquities secretary Kaleem Lashari feels there is nothing wrong with the sale of a heritage building as far as the place is kept in its original shape. “The transaction is allowed, but the transformation isn’t.”
Besides Umrani, another retired bureaucrat of the culture department, former secretary Shams Jaffrani, is also against the auction. Renowned preservationist and architect Yasmeen Lari, the head of the Heritage Foundation of Pakistan, also shares the same concerns. “We have seen heritage places demolished overnight,” she said.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 27th, 2012.
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