A chunk of history: Police stop liquidator from illegally selling off heritage items

A scrap dealer had offered Rs5,000 for a safe; bank official conveniently offers one.

HYDERABAD: The Miran Muhammad Shah Road in Hyderabad, formerly known as the Post Office Road, is home to over half a dozen heritage buildings. These structures were built well before independence and once housed courts, various district management offices, a bank, a hall and a college.

But despite their once prominent role in history, not all of them have been lucky enough to be preserved. The Sindh Provincial Cooperative Bank ((SPCB) - inaugurated by the then governor of Bombay, Lord Brabournne, in February of 1935 - is one of the unlucky ones.

Declared as one of the 85 heritage sites in Hyderabad in 2008, the ground floor structure survived a bid to demolish it in August 2012 after its auction was called off. And now, the bank’s heritage items would have landed in some scrap dealer’s shop had the police not intervened after being informed of the theft-in-progress.

The rescue

“They were mounting some items on a pickup van when the police reached the site and ordered them to put the goods back into the bank,” said the area’s SHO Aijaz Lakho. Police sources claim that two or three iron safes, and as many guns, were among the items being ‘carried off’. A scrap dealer, based in the Affandi Town area of Fuleli Town, had reportedly offered Rs5,000 for a safe and the bank’s liquidator decided that Rs5,000 for his own pocket in exchange of the historic safes at the bank was a good bargain.



Despite the timely intervention, the police failed to lodge a case. However, the Sindh Cooperative Housing Authority (SCHA), the owner of the bank, took up the matter. On June 12, the authority’s registrar, Sadiq Rajjar, wrote a letter to the bank’s liquidator, Abdul Sattar Laghari, who was allegedly behind the unauthorised ‘sale’, barring him from selling any more items.

“I also asked him to submit a detailed list of all the items that are placed in the bank but the liquidator did not comply,” he told The Express Tribune. The registrar later complained about the matter to the provincial cooperative secretary, Shazar Shamoon.

“Laghari was alleged to be involved in the theft of iron safes, guns and cupboards. I have removed him from the charge and an inquiry is underway. If he is found guilty, an FIR will be lodged against him,” Shamoon told The Express Tribune.

On Friday, an SCHA official from Karachi, Akhtar Pathan, took charge of the post of liquidator. Pathan told that he has obtained an initial list of items from Laghari but he will begin a thorough investigation from Monday regarding the heritage items in the bank.

The government’s part

The culture department, especially its heritage wing, has failed to preserve the bank; part of its roof has fallen and the remaining portion may follow suit any time now. Before its auction in 2012, there were reports and allegations of sabotage in order to pave way for the demolition of the building.

The bank

The Sindh Central Cooperative Bank Ltd was established in 1919 but its name was subsequently changed to the Sindh Provincial Cooperative Bank Ltd. The bank offered credit facilities to agricultural cooperative societies, numbered around 3,500 at that time in the province. The Federal Bank of Cooperatives (FBC) used to finance the SPCB for its short-term seasonal loans and medium-term tractor loans. However, in 1989, the FBC stopped funding the bank and, consequently, the SPCB halted issuing new loans. Since then, the bank has been staying afloat through its dwindling recoveries.

The bank still has a recoverable amount of Rs1.3 billion, including more than Rs560 million in principal amount and over Rs850 million in interest.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 30^th, 2014.